In the series of assaults and arrests following the suicide of Kancheepuram don Shridhar Dhanapalan, his driver and associate Dinesh was arrested in Kancheepuram on Monday. The man, who has over 20 cases of murder and attempt to murder to his name, was picked up along with an associate.

According to sources, the man nabbed alongside Dinesh was identified as Poyyakulam Thiyagarajan. There are previous cases of Dinesh and Thanikachalam attacking each other and even petrol bombs have been hurled in Highways in broad daylight. Brought up in impoverished conditions by a disabled mother, Sridhar Dhanapalan became a silk weaver and stuck to it for eight years before turning to arrack selling. He also had a flourishing oil business and acquired vast areas of land through coercion, before leaving the country. Even with the man absconding, cases were going on in Indian courts with his family attending. Sridhar Dhanapalan had allegedly expressed fears that the Indian police might kill him in an encounter before swallowing Cyanide at Cambodia.

Soon after Sridhar's death, his top associates - driver Dinesh and relative Thanikachalam - began a bloody feud over the ownership of Sridhar's' 'operations'. Within weeks after Sridhar's death, Thanikachalam and gang murdered Dinesh's associate Sathish, hacking the hapless man within public view in broad daylight. In revenge, Dinesh and gang murdered Thanikachalam's relative Karunakaran. Soon after this, the Kancheepuram police had rounded up over 30 people belonging to both factions in a bid to end the violence but ended up having to arrange two separate prisons as the two factions clashed even in custody.