Three men have been arrested in Chennai in connection with the attempted murder of a 23-year-old delivery worker who was stabbed multiple times in the Velachery area on Sunday, triggering a political exchange over law and order in Tamil Nadu.
The victim has been identified as Parthiban, who had multiple stab injuries after he was allegedly attacked by a group of men. The fight was rooted in prior enmity, police said.
Parthiban, recovering in a hospital, is said to be stable.
Velachery police said investigations revealed that the attack was not random but the result of an ongoing rivalry between the victim and the accused.
Three suspects, identified as Nandha, Vishnu and Sundar, were traced and arrested within hours of the incident. They have been remanded in judicial custody.
"A case of attempt to murder has been registered and further investigation is under way," a senior police officer told NDTV.
However, the officer also sought to place the incident in context, stating that Parthiban was not a full-time gig worker. "He's not a full-time gig worker. He is a history-sheeter and a trouble-monger in the neighbourhood," the officer said.
According to the police, the motive behind the attack was retaliation.
"Three days ago, the victim allegedly assaulted the accused. In retaliation, he was attacked yesterday," the officer said, adding that Parthiban had been arrested in another case and released on bail in the third week of December 2025.
Despite the arrests, the incident has snowballed into a political controversy. Tamil Nadu BJP president Nainar Nagendran said the stabbing reflected a deeper breakdown of law and order in the state.
"Violence has become disturbingly routine in Tamil Nadu," he alleged, blaming the ruling DMK for what he described as a deteriorating security situation.
The ruling DMK, however, strongly rejected the charge. Party sources said the Velachery incident was a stray case arising out of personal enmity and should not be politicised.
"These are isolated incidents linked to individual disputes. The police are taking stringent action against perpetrators in each case," a DMK spokesperson said
Police officials also echoed this view, stressing that the swift arrests demonstrated effective law enforcement. Investigators are now probing whether more people were involved in the attack and are examining CCTV footage from the area to reconstruct the sequence of events.
