Murder in front of Ambattur police station: 9 held in Chennai

CHENNAI: A day after a 19-year-old food delivery agent was murdered in broad daylight near the Ambattur police station on Thursday, police arrested nine suspects in the case.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that one of those arrested, Venkatesh, who masterminded Thursday's murder, devised a plan to eliminate Karthik, the deceased, as a revenge for his elder brother's murder on April 24 in Ambattur.
Trouble started on April 14 when the deceased Karthik's brother Shanmugam and Venkatesh's brother Logesh alias Karthik, 24, an electrician, picked up a quarrel inside a theatre in Ambattur.
Logesh was killed by a gang on April 24. Police arrested Shanmugam and others in connection with the murder. While all accused including Shanmugam came out on bail, Venkatesh planned to target Shanmugam. But he decided to kill his brother Karthik as a tit-for-tat.
Venkatesh and his friends monitored Karthik's movements, and killed him near Sivananda Nagar in Ambattur on Thursday. On information, a police team rushed to the spot and sent the body to Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) hospital for an autopsy.
Police apprehended I Venkatesh, 22, S Rakesh, 19, S Surya Prakash, 22, S Mukesh, 19, A Dominic Xavier, 18, and P Balaji, 22, all hailing from Ambattur, along with E Sanjay Kumar, 22, K Akash, 22, and T Vikram, 21, all from Red Hills.
Inspector Ramasamy said none of them were involved in previous offences. He said, "The suspects are below 22 years of age, so we cannot book them under Goondas Act." Due to this, the arrested suspects could walk out of jail after spending a short time behind the bars.
During questioning, Venkatesh confessed to having killed Karthik in revenge for his brother's murder. The nine suspects were remanded in judicial custody.