CHENNAI: Three men on Sunday hacked to death a 26-year-old Tamil television channel journalist at Somangalam in Kunrathur, allegedly because he thwarted the bid of the gang’s kingpin to sell off government poramboke land near a lake, police said.
Police arrested Venkatesan, Vignesh and Manoj on charges of murdering G Moses, 26, outside his house, and Navamani for ordering the killing. All four are being questioned.
Police said Moses of Nallur near Somangalam, covered the Sriperumbudur and Kundrathur areas for Tamilan TV. His father Gnanaraj Yesudasan, a reporter with daily Malai Tamizhagam, told police that at 11pm he received a call on his mobile phone and stepped out. An officer said the three men took him near to a lake a few metres from his house and began to attack him with machetes. He raised an alarm and tried to run away, but they chased and attacked him again. His father and some of the family’s neighbours came out hearing his cries and found him bleeding profusely. Moses was taken to Government Chromepet Hospital where doctors declared him ‘brought dead’.
Kancheepuram district superintendent of police D Shanmugapriya and other officers visited the spot and held inquiries. Police sources said a few anti-social elements had encroached upon a part of lake and were trying to sell it off after putting up a structure at the spot. Residents of the area demolished the structure and Moses decided to publish it as a news item which, however, did not appear on the channel. The gang believed Moses and his father and led the local residents.
Interrogations with the accused revealed that Navamani was sore with Moses after her threatened to publish his attempt to sell government poramboke land near the lake in Somangalam.
Navamani then told Venkatesh, a resident of a nearby village who was angry with Moses because he often bullied him, about the matter. On Sunday, Venkatesh, Vignesh and Manoj consumed liquor and murderd Moses, the officer said.
Moses’s father Gnanaraj told TOI that his son had always stood up against drugs, rowdyism and illegal activities in the district.
Condemning the murder, the Tamil Nadu Women Journalists claimed that Moses petitioned police a few days ago, seeking protection, but that they failed to give him cover.