Hours after a man was hacked to death near the Tirunelveli district court complex on Friday, Madras high court took suo motu note of the incident and directed police to beef up security at all district courts in the state.

A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman wondered how the police personnel present on the court premises had failed to prevent the murder. The court then directed the authorities to file a detailed report on the incident on Dec 21.

On Friday morning, a gang of four armed men attacked a man named Mayandi near the Tirunelveli district court complex when he came to the court to attend a hearing. The gang, which arrived in a car, intercepted Mayandi and attacked him with a sickle, killing him on the spot, before fleeing.