Kakatop Balaji, the historian, lost his life in a police encounter close to the Vyasapadijva railway station. Incorrigible gangster Balaji, also known as “Kakkathoppu” Balaji, 40 years old, is on police records in 40 more cases of murder and extortion.
A team under Police Inspector Bukhari is pursuing the suspects. They found Balaji hiding at B&C hostel close to the Vyasarpadi Jeeva railway station on Wednesday morning.
To this, the police responded by firing leading to him having a gunshot wound. After that he was rushed to Stanley Government Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
Balaji founded the James murder case and involved in Kamaraj murder case around the Ennore. However, soon after he went unseen underwater to avoid himself getting targeted. It is said that he once ruled portions of north chennai after rowdy Nagendran was convicted in court and Ennore Dhanasekar jailed where Sambavam Senthil continues his underworld business for over twenty years.
Backward Chennai Police Commissioner A Arun, who will assume his post in July 2024, expressed that he would suppress hooliganism in the country. “We will talk to them in a language they understand,”. Then on July 5, 33-year Thiruvangadam, an accused in the murder of a BSP Armstrong leader (Thiruvengadam) who was earlier reported to Thiruvengadam was brazenly shot dead in a police encounter.
He was also close friends with rowdy CD Mani and used to also have connections with other rowdies in the region.
In March 2020, middlemen of Sambavam Senthil made an attempt on Balaji and gangster CD Mani’s lives as the two were returning to Kamarajar Arangam area in Teynampet in their SUV. Both these two narrowly escaped.
Balaji was from a place called Kakathorpe which is near Mannadi.