CHENNAI: The manager of a container yard in Manali was bludgeoned to death on Friday morning after he allegedly admonished subordinates for shirking work. According to the police, the deceased Sai Prashanth (45) was a native of Gudur in Andhra Pradesh and worked as a manager for the past five years, and lived in a small cabin on site.
On Thursday, he confronted Balaji (25), a contract worker engaged in loading and unloading at the yard, for leaving earlier than his scheduled end of shift on Wednesday, which had caused delays in container loading.
This enraged Balaji and he got into a fight with Prashanth which culminated in him being sacked.
Around 1am on Friday, Balaji arrived at the yard with his associates Shyam (28), Sai Sarathy (32), Mugilan (30), and a few others on two-wheelers. They forced their way past the security guard, arguing that they urgently wanted to meet the manager. They barged into his cabin and attacked the sleeping Prashanth with knives and iron rods.
Prashanth desperately yelled in pain for help, but in vain. Cops rushed to the spot after they were intimated and found him lying in a pool of blood. He was rushed to the Stanley medical college and hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. His body was sent for postmortem.
The New Manali town police station registered a case of murder and is on the lookout for the suspects, police said.