A 17-year-old boy, A. Gubendran, was stabbed to death in the early hours of Monday (May 25, 2026) at the Madurai Corporation’s shopping complex in the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple parking lot.

A scuffle with a person identified as M. Muthumani, 28, over buying bananas at his shop on Dhalavai Street on April 26 is said to have led to the murder.

The police said that Gubendran was sleeping in the lobby on the first floor of the shopping complex when an armed gang stabbed him multiple times around 1.30 a.m. They then dragged him down to the ground floor and stabbed him repeatedly again. After leaving him dead in a pool of blood, the gang fled the scene.

The Vilakkuthoon police have picked up five suspects, including Muthumani, his brother Rajkumar, 26, Satheesh Kumar, 28, Harikrishnan, 18, and Muthukumar, 19.

The body has been taken to the Government Rajaji Hospital.

The police said that the deceased, along with four other minor boys, had assaulted Muthumani and caused cut injuries during a quarrel over buying bananas. The Thilagar Thidal police arrested all of them. However, they were released on bail by the court.

The next day, Muthumani’s mother, Panchavarnam, picked a quarrel with Gubendran’s mother, Thamarasevli, who sells flowers, and allegedly assaulted her. The police said that, in order to avenge the assault on Muthumani, the boy was murdered.

The police are on the lookout for three other suspects in the murder case.