DMK leader, friend hacked to death

Former Dravida Munnetra Kazagam minister Aladi Aruna and his friend were murdered at Aladivilai near Alankulam in Tirunelveli district, 150 km from Madurai [ Images ], Tamil Nadu, on Friday, police said.

Aruna and his friend, who is a professor at a college which the former minister was managing, were returning after their morning walk when unidentified assailants accosted them near a petrol bunk and hacked them to death, police said.

Top police officials have rushed to the spot. The murder had simliarities with the killing of former DMK minister T Kiruttinan, they said.

Aladi Aruna, a former member of , was in All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam for sometime.

He was sidelined by the DMK after he met some Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ] leaders before the last Lok Sabha elections when he was denied a ticket.

Though the DMK had announced that he had been removed from the party, Aladi Aruna claimed that he was still in the party.