Former Dravida Munnetra Kazagam minister Aladi Aruna and his friend were murdered at Aladivilai near Alankulam in Tirunelveli district, 150 km from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, on Friday, police said.

Aruna and his friend, who is a professor at a college which the former minister was managing, were returning after their morning walk when unidentified assailants accosted them near a petrol bunk and hacked them to death, police said.

Top police officials have rushed to the spot. The murder had simliarities with the killing of former DMK minister T Kiruttinan, they said.

Aladi Aruna, a former member of , was in All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam for sometime.

He was sidelined by the DMK after he met some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders before the last Lok Sabha elections when he was denied a ticket.

Though the DMK had announced that he had been removed from the party, Aladi Aruna claimed that he was still in the party.