Chennai: Gang kills traders association leader

CHENNAI: A 40-year-old trader was hacked to death by a gang at Virugambakkam at midnight on Monday.The victim, Mohammed Rafiq, a resident of Periyar Padhai in Choolaimedu, had just left for home on his two-wheeler from a mansion that he operated on 100 Feet Road in Arumbakkam, when he was attacked by an armed gang, sources said. About eight months ago, Rafiq had started a traders’ association, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Minorities Federation and All Traders Association, and become its president. Besides ‘Adila Mansion’, he also ran several fish stalls.Rafiq went to his mansion around 8 pm to check the account ledgers and started for his house on his bike about two hours later. As he entered a nearby lane, a three-member gang attacked him with knives, inflicting serious injuries on his face, head and neck, and escaped, the source said. Locals rushed him to a hospital, where he was declared ‘brought dead’. His body was sent to KMCH for autopsy. Police learnt that there was a fracas involving Rafiq and the secretary of his association Salim Babu during the inauguration of a water pandal on Sunday. Salim’s name had been left out the banner put up in connection with the opening of the pandal and he raised the issue with Rafiq at the venue itself. Rafiq told him that the matter could be settled at his house. Later, when Salim and his sister Khader Beevi met Rafiq at the latter’s house, the trader’s brother Sadiq reportedly took Babu to task. The brother-sister duo warned Rafiq and left the place in a huff. Police suspect that the face-off could have been behind the murder and their suspicions grew strong, when they found that Salim and sister had absconded. Rafiq had been booked in a murder case and subsequently freed. Tension prevailed in Choolaimedu and Arumbakkam following the murder and several policemen were deployed in the two areas. Man SurrendersMeanwhile, Akbar Batcha (42) of Choolaimedu, who initially claimed that he was surrendering in connection with a land case, later confessed that he was involved in Rafiq’s murder.