A. Murugan, a history-sheeter facing 86 cases, including 3 murder cases, across Tamil Nadu, was killed in an encounter with the police near Kalakkad in Tirunelveli district on Wednesday.
Murugan, also known as ‘Neeraavi’ Murugan, 42, of Neeraavimedu near Puthiyamputhur in Thoothukudi district, attacked sub-inspector Esakki Raja and his team when they tried to overpower him. The young police officer and constables Mani and Sathyaraj were injured and admitted to the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital. Their condition is stable.
A special team from Dindigul, led by Mr. Esakki Raja, was tracking Murugan for his involvement in the recent burglary of 40 sovereigns of gold ornaments from the house of a doctor at Oddanchathram. They tracked him and his associates to Tirunelveli district with the help of mobile phone signals.
Coming down to Tirunelveli, the team found him travelling in a multi-utility vehicle towards Nanguneri on Wednesday. When the police gave him the chase, Murugan, who was behind the wheel, switched to the rural road from the national highway, leading to Meenavankulam near Kalakkad.
The team intercepted the vehicle as it was crossing a forest area. Murugan got down and attacked Mr. Mani, Mr. Sathyaraj and Mr. Esakki Raja, who opened fire in self-defence, killing him on the spot.
Tirunelveli Superintendent of Police P. Saravanan visited the spot, and Mr. Esakki Raja and the injured constables at the hospital.
The police said Murugan left his family in his teens to settle down in Muniyasamy Temple Street in Thoothukudi along with criminals. When his relative ‘Wines’ Shankar was part of one of the two leading gangs of bootleggers in Thoothukudi in the 1980s, Murugan joined the gang led by one Kopparai.
After the rival gang murdered ‘Wines’ Shankar at Kayathar, Murugan became a permanent member of the gang. As strict police action broke up the bootlegging gangs, Murugan, along with his associates, got into robberies and burglaries across Tamil Nadu.
A dispute erupted between Murugan’s friend Ashok of Thoothukudi and A.C. Arunachalam of Samuelpuram, who was then the deputy district secretary of the DMK, over a contract for running the two-wheeler parking lot at the new bus stand in Thoothukudi. Arunachalam was murdered. Murugan was an accused in the killing. Murugan also murdered his associate over sharing the booty in Tiruppur, the police said.
“He is facing 17 cases in Thoothukudi district alone and was detained under the Goondas Act twice. Even though he broke his legs twice while attempting to escape from the police, he never stopped his criminal activities,” said a police officer here.
