Hardly a day passes in Chennai without a murder being reported in the city and its suburbs. The murder of a guard at Vadapalani Apartment in the city is only the latest incident that points to the worsening crime scenario in Chennai, the laxity on the part of its police force, or both.

Karuppazhagi, the guard, was found charred, in a sleeping posture on July 8. Though police doubted that it could have been an accident due to mosquito coils, the injuries on his face showed otherwise. He was the second security guard to be killed in the same locality; the first one died with head injuries on June 25. The police nabbed the killer soon, but not before he killed a ragpicker in a similar manner. Many, along with the police, suspected Ekambaram, a mentally deranged person, to be the culprit. The latest murder raises doubts and intrigue with the media drawing parallels with earlier ones.

Further, in spite of their undertaking extreme measures like encounter killings to eliminate gangsters, there have been 18 murders in June alone, which show Chennai police in a bad light.

A murder that was widely covered by the media was that of MGR’s kin ‘MGR’ Vijayan. The case has since been transferred to Crime Branch CID, though no headway has been made as yet.

A 65-year-old man was kicked to death by his daughter and her husband. The couple, Kalai Selvi and Jagannathan, was not willing to share property worth Rs 2 crore with her sisters. Another couple was caught for two murders, including one of a housewife. In another instance, two sons-in-law were arrested for killing their mother-in-law after she objected to their desire to remarry.

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