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Tamil Nadu man on a killing spree to avenge brother’s murder arrested after 12 years
On October 11, back in 2012, Vijayakumar — brother of the accused — had withdrawn some money in an ATM and was talking to a friend around 7pm on the road when the six-member gang attacked him with sickles.
For years a younger brother had been absconding after he sought revenge and allegedly murdered four out of the six suspected killers of his elder brother who died in 2012 in the outskirts of Chennai.
Since then, the younger brother RD Suresh Kumar committed a series of murders.
After the fourth murder, he surrendered before the police in 2020 but he was out on bail and did not turn up for trial, said a senior police officer who tracked him down.
After coming close to catching him last year, police managed to catch him only in February from Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal district while he was plotting the fifth murder. “Our team was continuously following him in these years and we finally caught him,” the officer said.
“This is the first time we are arresting him. He had surrendered earlier.”
In the past 12 years, 42-year-old Kumar targeted only the six men who were all accused of murdering his brother RD Vijayakumar, a two time panchayat president of Ponvilaintha Kalathur in Chengalpattu district which adjoins Chennai. On October 11, back in 2012, Vijayakumar had withdrawn some money in an ATM and was talking to a friend around 7pm on the road when the six-member gang attacked him with sickles.
Vijayakumar, then 36 years old, succumbed to his injuries. He belonged to the regional party, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and had a thriving constriction business, police said.
The AIADMK was ruling Tamil Nadu then. The six member gang who were arrested immediately after the crime were identified as belonging to the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and their then ally Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK). One of the accused arrested included Umapathy (full name not available), then a union counsellor of the AIADMK. One of the arrested DMDK men, Duraidoss, the prime accused had then alleged to the police that Vijayakumar was involved in sand mining from the Palar river which flows through Chengalpattu. “They had a conflict over it and they killed Vijayakumar,” the officer quoted above said. Vijaykumar had been single and an attempt to murder case was pending against him. “Suresh believed that because of political rivalry his brother was killed and he decided to avenge the killers.”
The following year in July 2013, Suresh committed his first murder killing Kuppan belonging to the AIADMK. While Kuppan was on his way to Chennai by car, Suresh and his accomplices murdered him on the road and fled. “This was the only murder in which he was present. The remaining killings he had masterminded through accomplices,” the officer quoted above said. In 2014, two more accused were murdered–Duraidoss in their village in Chengalpattu and Kuppan’s son Nithyanandam in Chennai. In 2020, a fourth accused Sekar was murdered in Chengalpattu. Suresh and his accomplices were remanded to judicial custody but had come out on bail.
A local resident aged 36 who did not wish to be named fearing retaliation said that this village, about seven kilometres from Chengalpattu’s central town, had been in shock first over Vijayakumar’s murder and then the retaliatory murder. “Everyone just keeps away from the family, especially after it turned political,” he said. Vijayakumar was single and lived with his mother S Ambika.
“We had issued several arrest warrants against him. He was in hiding,” a second police officer said. “Once the person doesn’t appear for trial and we aren’t able to arrest him to produce him before court, we undertake a procedure as per CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) under section 82 - declaration of proclamation so the court declares him as a proclaimed offender after which the next step is attachment of his properties. That process was on-going while we were simultaneously trying to trace him.”
In the meanwhile, Suresh had eloped with a woman police constable from the cyber crime wing. “So he was well aware of how mobile phones are tracked. He was using high end technology and VPN (virtual private network),” the second officer said. One of the locations that showed up while tracking him was Australia while he was in Tamil Nadu, police said. “A dedicated special team was fully low profile to chase him. We had several close shaves. We almost reached him last year but we couldn’t get him until now in Namakkal,” the officer said. The special team reached Namakkal after they found that a fifth accused Venkatesh had been living there. Police did not wish to elaborate but said that they used technical and human intelligence and surveillance to trap Suresh and arrested him from a house in Namakkal. Police also did not wish to comment on the woman’s constable’s role in the case.
“One by one he murdered his brother’s killers out of revenge and despite being away he established dominance in the area by striking some land deals, threatening industries. That became a second motivation for him,” the first police officer said. He is now lodged in Puzhal prison.
