Chennai: A 32-year-old electrician was hacked to death in full public view near a private school at Red Hills on Wednesday morning. Police arrested three men, including two brothers of the victim’s wife. Police said a family dispute over his extramarital relationship led to the murder.R Rathinavel Pandian of Mondiamman Nagar was riding his two-wheeler along VOC Nagar Street when the assailants intercepted him near a school. They knocked him off the vehicle and stabbed him repeatedly with knives before fleeing, police said.Residents who heard Rathinavel’s screams rushed to the spot and found him lying in a pool of blood. Red Hills police took him to the Government Primary Health Centre at Padianallur, where doctors declared him brought dead. His body was later sent to Government Stanley Medical College Hospital for postmortem.Police said Rathinavel had married Poornima and the couple had two sons. They lived at Kavankarai in Puzhal, but eventually, marital differences developed between them and the couple separated. Rathinavel later entered into a relationship with Saranya, Poornima’s brother Saravanan’s wife.He had been living with her near Mondiamman Nagar for the past few months, police said. Relatives repeatedly asked him to end the relationship, but he refused. Police said this was when Saravanan decided to kill Rathinavel.As part of the plan, Saravanan’s brother Dhanasekar, 34, kept track of Rathinavel’s movements and alerted the others when he left on his two-wheeler on Wednesday morning. The assailants rammed Rathinavel’s vehicle, knocking him down, following which Saravanan and his uncle Palanisamy, 45, attacked him with knives, police said.Red Hills police arrested Saravanan and Dhanasekar, both from Kavankarai, and Palanisamy of Ennore. Two knives used in the attack and a two-wheeler were seized.The three were booked for murder and remanded in judicial custody.
