Chennai: In a spine-chilling incident, three people, including a warden of Puzhal prison, were murdered by a seven-member gang in two different places in Vellore district of Tamilnadu.

The incident occurred under the Ariyalur police station limits late on Tuesday night and all the seven, including two main accused, were arrested within an hour of the killings.

The deceased were identified as Jail warden Thanigaivel (26), Kamesh (29) and Divakar (25). Police suspect that murders took place following reports
that the deceased were leaking information about rowdy Raja alias ‘MLA’ Raja to the rival gang led by one Ashok Kumar.

The gang, said to be supporters of Raja, first murdered Divakar and Thanigaivel at G R Palayam in Ariyalur and then hacked Kamesh to death near a private nursing college in the same locality, police said.

When Raja came to know that information about him was being leaked to the rival gang, he called up Thanigavel and Divakar separately and took them to G R Palayam on the pretext of consuming alcohol.

He also asked Thanigaivel to call Kamesh and asked him to come near the nursing college, acording to Vellore District SP S Selvakumar.

After murdering Thanigaivel and Divakar, ‘MLA’ Raja, his associate Chamber Raja and five other gang members went to the spot where Kamesh was waiting and murdered him too.

Selvakumar, soon after getting information about the murders, the police department swiftly intensified vehicle checks and found a vehicle moving in a suspicious manner.

Police intercepted the vehile and nabbed the seven gang members. Tension prevailed in the area in view of the triple murder. The bodies were sent to the Government Vellore Medical College Hospital for post-mortems.