Drug Peddler Bloodily Hacked To Death In Front Of Mother By 10-Man Gang

A 29-year-old man in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu who was recently released on bail was hacked to death by 10 members of a rival gang in front of his mother earlier this week.

The man, identified as P Ramachandran, of Moovasarampet, Madipakkam, was about to have lunch Tuesday when the 10 assailants entered his home and attacked him with sickles, newspaper The Times of India reported.

Ramachandran's 60-year-old mother, Sundari, received cut injuries after she attempted to save her son, but the 10 men had ensured that the victim was dead.

Neighbors discovered the alleged marijuana peddler dead after the gang left, and a team from Madipakkam station took his body to Chromepet Government Hospital for postmortem. His mother was also admitted to the hospital for treatment.

Madipakkam police later registered a murder case based on a complaint filed by Sundari. Authorities were then able to arrest Ramachandran's rival, identified as Vasantha Kumar, as well as nine of his gang members, after checking surveillance camerate footage.

The nine were identified as "Thondai Appunu" alias Vasantha Kumar, 27, of B V Nagar; Kumaran, 32, of Senniamman Street, Kilkattalai; Suresh Kanna, 30, of Tirunelveli; Shiva, 25, of Thenmozhi Nagar, Kilkattalai; Babloo, 34, of the same locality; Prakash, 29, of Kovilambakkam; Arumugham, 29, of Velacherry; Aravind, 28, of Adambakkam and Prashanth, 26, of Kovilambakkam.

Police also seized one autorickshaw, one bike and nine machetes from the group. Authorities learned through interrogations that there had been friction between Ramachandran and Kumar over marijuana peddling, which had led to the murder.

Kumar allegedly warned Ramachandran on several occasions and, at one point, also attempted to murder him but failed.

Prior to this death, Ramachandran reportedly had murder and attempted murder cases pending against him at Madipakkam, Pallavaram, Pazhavanthangal and Adambakkam police stations.

A similar case happened in Connecticut in July when a 47-year-old drug dealer was arrested over the death of a rival last year.

Craig Gore was arrested on July 9 in connection to the death of 38-year-old Guillermo Rivera, who was fatally shot on Nov. 8 last year when a fight broke out while Rivera was selling drugs on McKinley Road, Hartford.

A witness who was with Rivera claimed the assailant appeared to have dropped two smartphones on the ground near the scene, which investigators recovered and analyzed. One of the phones was registered to Gore, while the other was listed to his alias, Apex. Both listed Gore's home address in East Hartford.

Gore had been arrested on Nov. 17 on unrelated drug charges. Police announced at the time that they expected to charge Gore with murder, but a judge did not sign the warrant charging him of the crime for another two weeks and Gore had been released on bond by then.

Gore remains in custody on $1.25 million bond for the murder charge. He also has three other active cases against him involving more than a dozen drug offenses and two weapons charges.