Acting tough on accused who were arrested on charges of murdering former Ilamanur village panchayat vice president, who along with others opposed sand quarrying from a waterbody in the village, the district police detained all the five accused under the Goondas Act.
Acting on the recommendations of Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao passed the detention order on Monday evening after which, the accused who were lodged at the district jail here were shifted and lodged in Madurai central prison on Tuesday.
Kenikarai Inspector of Police Ramani served the detention orders on the accused - R Jayabharath, 32, K Karthik, 29, R Harish Babu, 23, K Anandaraj, 33 and S Arunkumar, 33, police said. The Kenikarai had booked the accused under sections 302 (murder) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt, using dangerous weapons) of Indian Penal Code.
The police case was that a group of villagers, led by former village vice president B. Mohan objected to sand quarrying in ‘Puzhuthikulam’ kanmai in the village on June 2, when the accused chased and attacked them. While others ran and escaped with injuries, Mohan died after the accused assaulted and drowned him in the waterbody. At least five villagers were injured in the incident, police said.
Special police teams were deputed to Kancheepuram, Chennai, and other places to nab the accused but they managed to give the slip and surrendered before courts at different places. A day after the murder, residents of Ilamanur village had staged sit-in dharna in front of the Collector’s camp office, demanding stern action against the accused.