Chennai, Sep 23 (PTI) ‘Seizing’ Raja, a proclaimed offender who was arrested from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, was shot dead here on Monday after he attempted to flee from custody by opening fire on them, police said.
When the accused was taken to a location on the outskirts of the city to recover weapons hidden by him, he tried to escape and shot at the police team.
A police officer fired at him in self-defence and he succumbed to his injuries, a senior official said.
Many years ago, while working for a loan recovery agent, N Raja (51) used to ‘seize’ vehicles of defaulters and hence, he came to be known as ‘seizing’ Raja and later became infamous for his ‘involvement’ in criminal offences, police sources said.
“In the initial two places where he led the police, there were no weapons and in the third place, there was a country-made pistol. While pretending to hand over it, he fired twice at an inspector and luckily, it missed the target and hit the vehicle.” Another inspector, who was on the spot, fired at the accused for self-defence.
Raja, having sustained injuries, fainted, and he was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the police official told reporters here.
Raja, who has a total of 39 serious criminal cases against him, including six for murder, has been jailed eight times under the Goondas Act. A history sheeter, there are more than 10 warrants pending against him and he is a proclaimed offender.
Special police teams were formed to nab him and based on a tip-off, they arrested him on September 22 from his hideout at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. He was handed over by the special teams to Velachery police inspector on September 23 morning and he was taken to Akkarai (East Coast Road) for recovery of weapons.
The body of the accused has been sent to Government Royapettah Hospital for autopsy.
Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram, in a post on X said: “Encounter killings is a reflection of bad & inefficient policing. This is vigilante justice & has no place in a rule of law system.” On Sunday, a video clip, purportedly of Raja’s wife expressing apprehensions over the safety of her husband in police custody was shared on social media.
Politicial commentator Sumanth Raman in a social media post said: “Police “encounters” represent a failure of the criminal justice system.” Starting from July this year, this is the third encounter death in Chennai. On July 5, BSP state chief K Armstrong was hacked to death. Thiruvengadam, a key accused in the Armstrong murder case and a history sheeter ‘Kakkathoppu’ Balaji died in police encounters.
On July 8, senior IPS officer A Arun took over as Chennai police commissioner. Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition AIADMK had for long targeted the ruling DMK over its handling of the law and order situation. PTI VGN KH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.