Selvaraj, a reporter for the Tamil-language biweekly Nakkeeran, was murdered in his hometown of Perambalur, Tamil Nadu, by a gang of about a dozen men who attacked him with knives and sickles.
At around 10:20 p.m., the group approached Selvaraj near the bus station in Perambalur and hacked him to death. He died instantly from more than 20 serious lacerations all over his body, according to sources at Nakkeeran, a well-respected news magazine known for its investigative reports, which have often exposed cases of government corruption.
Nakkeeran editor R. Gopal suspected that Selvaraj may have been murdered for writing about official malfeasance in the nearby town of Tiruchi, where the journalist was based. Other local journalists thought the murder was the result of a personal quarrel.
The Crime Branch Central Investigation Department, the state’s top-level investigative agency, was handling the investigatio, but had not reported any significant progress at year’s end.