Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader C. Balasubramanian was hacked to death by an unidentified gang in Madurai on Tuesday. (PTI)
Naam Tamilar Katchi’s district north deputy secretary was hacked to death in Madurai Tuesday morning when he was out on morning walk along Vallabai Road in Madurai’s Chokkikulam. Four people have been arrested in connection with the case.
According to the police, C Balasubramanian, 48, who hailed from Sellur, was attacked by a gang of more than four persons near the residence of IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan in Madurai city.
Rushed to a nearby hospital, Balasubramanian was declared dead on arrival and his body has been sent to the Government Rajaji Hospital for postmortem.
A senior officer, monitoring the probe, told The Indian Express that preliminary investigation does not point to any political motive. The officer said that a month ago, there was a “marital problem in his close relative’s family”.
“An entire family was slapped with cases. Preliminary enquiry indicates that the family that was remanded in judicial custody last month believed that Balasubramanian was behind the charges, their imprisonment and used his political connections to influence the police. They had plans to seek revenge. We are probing into that angle and also looking at his involvement in alleged criminal activities and financial disputes in the past,” the officer said.
The city police commissioner J Loganathan visited the crime scene.
Balasubramanian’s murder comes after BSP state chief K Armstrong was hacked to death in Chennai on July 5 by a six-member gang when he was chatting with his friends and supporters near his home. Based on their preliminary investigation, the police said that Armstrong was killed in retaliation for the killing of a gangster, Arcot Suresh, in August last year. On July 14, K Thiruvengadam, an accused in the murder case was shot dead by the Chennai Police, who said they opened fire after he attempted to flee after attacking an officer.
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Condemning the killing, NTK’s chief coordinator Seeman said in a post on X, “We will launch a protest if those responsible for the death of Balasubramanian are not arrested immediately”.
Three days after Armstrong’s killing, the Tamil Nadu government transferred Sandeep Rai Rathore as Commissioner of Police, Greater Chennai and replaced him with senior IPS officer A Arun.
Meanwhile, in a bureaucratic reshuffle, the state government Tuesday transferred Principal Home Secretary P Amudha. She has been replaced with Dheeraj Kumar, currently Additional Chief Secretary to Government, IT and Digital Services Department.
Kumar has been allotted the Home, Prohibition and Excise Department.
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Amudha has been posted as Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department.
Arun Janardhanan is an experienced and authoritative Tamil Nadu correspondent for The Indian Express. Based in the state, his reporting combines ground-level access with long-form clarity, offering readers a nuanced understanding of South India’s political, judicial, and cultural life - work that reflects both depth of expertise and sustained authority.
Expertise
Geographic Focus: As Tamil Nadu Correspondent focused on politics, crime, faith and disputes, Janardhanan has been also reporting extensively on Sri Lanka, producing a decade-long body of work on its elections, governance, and the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings through detailed stories and interviews.
Key Coverage Areas:
State Politics and Governance: Close reporting on the DMK and AIADMK, the emergence of new political actors such as actor Vijay’s TVK, internal party churn, Centre–State tensions, and the role of the Governor.
Legal and Judicial Affairs: Consistent coverage of the Madras High Court, including religion-linked disputes and cases involving state authority and civil liberties.
Investigations: Deep-dive series on landmark cases and unresolved questions, including the Tirupati encounter and the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, alongside multiple investigative series from Tamil Nadu.
Culture, Society, and Crisis: Reporting on cultural organisations, language debates, and disaster coverage—from cyclones to prolonged monsoon emergencies—anchored in on-the-ground detail.
His reporting has been recognised with the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Beyond journalism, Janardhanan is also a screenwriter; his Malayalam feature film Aarkkariyam was released in 2021. ... Read More
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