When Sledging Turns Deadly: Cricket Spat Ends in Murder, Nine Get Life
Chennai: Sledging during a village cricket match in rural Tamil Nadu triggered a cycle of revenge that ended in bloodshed and life sentences. Seventeen years after a 20-year-old was hacked to death with sickles and killed using country bombs in full public view, a trial court sentenced nine men to life imprisonment, holding the murder as premeditated and executed with deadly precision.
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The incident traces back to late 2007, when a match at Koothankuli Polytechnic Ground turned ugly. During the match, Siluvai Anthony Reagan (the deceased) and his friend Elton were assaulted with a cycle chain by Ganesan (alias Ganesh), son of Gandhi, and another player, whose name is also Raegan. Though elders mediated a truce, Ganesan's subsequent jibes at a hotel reignited tensions. The deceased, along with Elton and another youth, retaliated.
A police case was filed against them, and they began reporting daily to Kudankulam station as per bail conditions.
It was after one such routine police visit on January 22, 2008, that Reagan, Elton, and the complainant boarded a truck back to their village. Around 6.15 pm near Vijayapathi Rice Mill, their vehicle was intercepted by Ganesh's group—armed and waiting. Two motorcycles blocked the front and rear, and others emerged from thorn bushes with sickles.
Gandhi (father of Ganesh) hurled a country bomb that hit Elton's right ankle, seriously injuring him.
Ganesh followed with another bomb that exploded on the road.
Siluvai Anthony Reagan was dragged out of the truck and attacked by multiple assailants. The court noted in forensic detail how each of the accused, including Simbu, John Paul, and others, inflicted targeted cuts using sickles—on his neck, shoulder, and torso—causing instant death.
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Based on confessions, police later recovered 48 country bombs—38 from Gandhi and 10 from Simbu.
Convicting nine accused—Gandhi, Ganesh, Simbu, John Paul, Vinod, Sanjay, Anran (son of Aeronimus), James, and Michael (son of Aeronimus)—the Tirunelveli Sessions Court sentenced them to life imprisonment under IPC Sections 302, 148, and 3(a) of the Explosive Substances Act. Gandhi and Ganesh received additional sentences under Sections 326 and 5(a), with all terms to run concurrently. Others were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
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