Four arrested after NTK functionary hacked to death in Madurai

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.

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.

Amudha has been posted as Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department.

With PTI inputs