COIMBATORE: A man murdered an elderly couple near Avinashi in Tirupur district on Wednesday night during a fight over his cattle and chickens damaging their crops. The Avinashi police arrested the accused man on Thursday.
The murdered couple have been identified as A Palanisamy, 80, and P Parvatham, 72, of Periyathottam near Thulukkamuthur village. Police said the couple were staying in a house on their agricultural land. The couple has a son and two daughters who are married and live elsewhere.
The couple’s relative and neighbour, C Ramesh, 40, who is unmarried, was rearing cattle and chickens on his farmland. His cattle and chickens often entered the agricultural fields of the couple and damaged the crops. They often quarrelled with him over this issue.
On Wednesday evening, his chickens entered their farmland. The couple picked up a quarrel with him. In a fit of rage, Ramesh hacked the elderly couple to death and escaped from there on a motorcycle. However, he lost control of the motorcycle, fell on the road and sustained severe injuries. He was admitted to Government Medical College Hospital in Tirupur.
On Thursday morning, the neighbours of the elderly couple noticed the main door of the house open. They went there, found the bodies of the couple and alerted the Avinashi police. The police sent the bodies to the Avinashi Govt Hospital for postmortem. They began investigations and traced the whereabouts of Ramesh, who confessed to the crime.
The Avinashi police registered a murder case (two counts) against Ramesh and arrested him.
Meanwhile, AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran expressed shock over the murder of the couple. He recalled the murders an elderly couple and their son by armed burglars in their farmhouse at Semmalai Goundenpalayam village in Tirupur district in Nov 2024. The Avinashipalayam police are yet arrest murderers of Deivasigamani, 78, his wife D Alamelu, 75, and their son D Senthilkumar, 46, an IT firm employee.
“Such a series of murders shows the inefficiency of the police. The chief minister of Tamil Nadu created other problems and diverted the people towards the problems. The state govt should give more attention to law and order and should create a safe situation for the general public in Tamil Nadu,” Dhinakaran posted on X on Thursday.
