puducherry the vicechairman of a panchayat union in villupuram district who belonged to the dmk and was an accused in murder and attempt to murder cases was hacked to death on friday night by a fourmember gang in puducherry police said vanur panchayat union vicechairman j sankaranarayanan 42 and two of this associates palani 45 and magesh 34 had come to villianur in the outskirts of puducherry to attend a wedding receptionwhen they came out of the marriage hall the gang attacked them with sharp weapons after lighting fireworks to distract their attention the gang members fled the scene after the three persons fell unconscious the three sustained severe cut injuries and were rushed to jawaharlal institute of postgraduate medical education and research jipmer sankaranarayanan who sustained injuries on his head and face died the condition of magesh who sustained cut injuries on his head is said to be critical while palani with injuries on his neck and chest is said to be out of dangera police team led by superintendent of police south a nandagopal visited the spot and made preliminary investigations forensic experts combed the crime scene for vital clues a sniffer dog was also press into service inquiries revealed that the deceased was an accused in more than 10 cases including those of murder and attempt to murder registered by various police stations in tamil nadu it was also showed that the dmk man held katta panchayats disposing real estaterelated issues for a price police suspected enmity with another gang over settling of real estate disputes to be the reason behind the attack police have so far identified two members of the gang sivakumar and saravanan and are hunting for them