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Tamil Nadu
By S. Vijay Kumar
A two-member, motorcycle-borne gang stabbed the 66-year-old senior party functionary indiscriminately, when he was returning home after a morning walk, on the busy K.K. Nagar-Vandiyur Lake Road shortly after 6 a.m., according to eyewitnesses. Mr. Kiruttinan sustained grievous cut injuries and was rushed to a private hospital, where the doctors declared him dead. The body was shifted to the Government Rajaji Hospital for post-mortem and then taken to his native village, Kombukkaranendal in Sivaganga district, amid tight security. Tension prevailed in the city as news of the death spread. A large number of party workers and relatives gathered on the hospital premises. The crime, which occurred at the crack of dawn barely a few yards away from Mr. Kiruttinan's house, has shocked Maduraiites, who have been witness to a spate of crimes, including a series of murders, in the recent past. The accused used sharp-edged weapons causing him deep wounds in the head, shoulders and chest. Even before Mr. Kiruttinan's kin, who heard the cries, ran to his rescue, the culprits sped towards the K.K. Nagar main road. A large posse of police personnel, including the Swift Action Force, was deployed at vulnerable locations as a precautionary measure. There were minor incidents of shops and vehicles being stoned at K.K. Nagar, and the police resorted to a mild lathicharge. Considered a staunch loyalist of M.K. Stalin (Chennai-based son of the DMK chief, M. Karunanidhi), Mr. Kiruttinan was a three-time MP. He was elected from the Sivaganga Assembly segment in 1996 and later accommodated as Highways Minister in the DMK Cabinet. With the sidelining of the former Speaker, P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan, from mainstream politics, Mr. Kiruttinan was emerging as a strongman of the faction-plagued DMK in the south. Even as the city police are probing various angles, including a property dispute and personal enmity, hundreds of cadres, mostly from the Stalin camp, claimed ``intra-party rivalry'' as the provocation for the murder. They squarely blamed the high command for allowing factionalism to take root in the southern districts over the years, which ultimately took its toll today. Mr. Kiruttinan was to have contested for district secretary in Sivaganga. Senior party functionaries, including the Madurai urban district committee organiser, C. Kaverimaniam; the former Mayor, P. Kulandaivelu, and the former Minister, Pon. Muthuramalingam, were booed when they came to the mortuary, and had to be escorted out by the police. An angry mob dismantled party flags from all vehicles and replaced them with blackflags. The body has been kept in cold storage at Kombukkaranendal, as the children of the slain leader were on their way back from the United States. The Commissioner of Police, P. Kandaswamy, has formed three special teams led by the DCP (Law and Order), V. Gopalakrishnan.
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