The incident happened a few metres away from his house on Veerakutti Street in Tondiarpet when deceased Kesavan was going for a walk. A gang of men who were hiding in the area surrounded him and when he tried to escape, they chased and hacked him to death. The gang fled the spot after damaging the vehicles in the area. Kesavan was rushed to Government Stanley Hospital where he died without responding to treatment.

 On information, Tondiarpet police rushed to the spot and conducted inquiries. It is suspected that he could be murdered for tipping off police on illicit liquor sales. Police have launched a hunt for the suspects. Since Kesavan is said to have a couple of cases pending against him, police are also probing whether he was murdered over any previous enmity.

 Similarly, a 20-year-old man was murdered by a four-member gang near Red Hills and Sholavaram police of Tiruvallur district have registered a case. 

The deceased M Somu of Nallur village was returning home after attending a funeral when four men intercepted him at Nagathamman Nagar and hacked him to death. Sholavaram police retrieved his body to send it post-mortem and launched a hunt for the suspects.

 Preliminary investigation revealed that Somu could have been murdered due to the enmity over peddling ganja in the locality. Police said Somu too has two robbery cases pending against him.