SIVAGANGA: Two siblings were beaten to death by a group of villagers allegedly for stealing goats and chicken at Alagamangiri village around 2 am on Tuesday. So far, six persons have been arrested in this connection.
The deceased have been identified as S Manikandan (31) and his brother S Sivashankaran (24) alias Vigneshwaran from V Kallampatti village. The Mathagupatti police said both were having a few theft cases pending against them. The incident happened at a farm owned by P Subbu (52).
Sources said a few villagers who were on the search for a missing jallikattu bull found the duo in possession of a few stolen goats and chicken.
After getting an alert, more villagers joined and thrashed the brothers using wooden sticks. The police personnel who reached the spot took the two to Government Sivaganga Medical College Hospital for treatment.
The doctors at the hospital declared Sivashankaran was brought dead. Manikandan succumbed to his injuries a few minutes later. Their bodies were sent for postmortem. Superintendent of police Ashish Rawat inspected the spot at night.
A police officer said 10 more people are being investigated, and the total number of arrests could go up. The arrested persons have been identified as S Thirupathi (45), A Somaraj (31), R Prabu (30), V Deepak (19), S Vigneshwaran (31) and R Dinesh (31), all from Alagamanagari. A case has been registered under 103(1) (punishment for murder) of the BNS. Further probe is on.