Two young men were hacked to death in Tirusulam, opposite Chennai International Airport, after an armed gang barged into the house where they were sleeping, police said. The victims were identified as Arumugam (20) and Sathish (18), both from Mudichur. According to witnesses the attackers arrived on motorcycles and an autorickshaw, used sickles and machetes and warned off neighbours who came out after hearing screams. Police sent the bodies to Tambaram Government Hospital for post-mortem and formed special teams to trace the remaining suspects. Investigators suspect the attack stemmed from a prior rivalry involving history-sheeters. Police have arrested eight suspects and believe four others are still at large, according to the report.
Where this sits in Chennai’s recent crime picture
This kind of targeted killing often links back to long-running disputes among known offenders. At the city level, the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) has reported that overall serious crime figures fell in 2025 compared with the previous two years, though incidents like the Tirusulam double murder underline that violent, rivalry-driven attacks continue.
In an official summary reported earlier this year, GCP said the number of murders fell to 93 in 2025, compared with 105 in 2023 and 2024. The police attributed many of the murders to “crimes of passion”, sudden rage, or drunken brawls, and said monitoring by its revamped Organised Crime Unit helped prevent some retaliatory attacks.
The same GCP data showed declines in several street-level property offences:
- Waylaying cases: 180 in 2025, down from 256 in 2024 and 325 in 2023
- Mobile and chain snatching: 206 in 2025, down from 310 in 2024 and 424 in 2023
Greater Chennai Police have undertaken preventive detention to disrupt repeat offenders. In July 2025, Chennai police said they had detained 1,002 people under the Goondas Act over a year, including 610 classified as “rowdy elements” and 275 as drug offenders, as part of a crackdown aimed at breaking gang cohesion.
