Two dead as robbery in Chennai goes wrong
CHENNAI: Two persons — a robber and a driver — were killed in a case involving robbery and accident in Madhavaram on Thursday.
Police said that when three teenagers riding a bike were speeding after robbing cell phone from a man, one of them was fatally hit by a lorry and in a fit of rage, the other two beat the driver to death.
Sukumar 18, his 17-year-old brother, and Mani, 18, who were riding the two-wheeler, reached 200 Feet Road between Ennore and Madhavaram around 8.30 pm, when they spotted one Virakan, 46, of Ambattur speaking over the phone. “Sukumar rode the bike close to him, Mani snatched the phone and the trio sped away,” said a police officer.
“As they were speeding, Sukumar tried to overtake a lorry and hit the side of the vehicle and the trio fell down. Sukumar came under the rear tyre and died on the spot while the other two boys escaped with minor injuries,” the officer added.
Noting that Sukumar was killed on the spot, his brother and Mani started attacking the lorry driver, Mani, 46, a native of Esaiyanur near Arcot in Vellore district. Passersby sent the driver to the government hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
The public nabbed Mani and the juvenile and handed him over to the Madhavaram Milk Colony police station.
Both have been remanded under the IPC Section 302 (murder) and the juvenile has been sent to the government observation home. The bodies of Sukumar and Mani were sent to Stanley Government College Hospital for postmortem.
Police also said that the duo who were arrested have chain and phone snatching cases pending against them.
6 staff suffer minor injuries in star hotel fire
Chennai: A minor fire broke out at a star hotel at Ekkathuthangal near Guindy in the early hours on Friday. Police said that around 2.30 am, about 10 employees were cleaning a boiler and the kitchen when the fire broke out. “Since there were automatic fire alarms and the main gas pipeline was shut off, the fire was doused automatically,” said a police officer. However, six staff sustained minor injures when they tried to escape. A case has been registered and investi-gations are on.
Car rolls down Tiruttani hill
Chennai: A car parked on Tiruttani hill fell into a valley on Wednesday as the brake had not been applied properly, police said. No causalty was reported. Police said Vijayakumar, 35, of Andhra Pradesh, owned a hotel at Tiruttani. On Wednesday, he went to the hill temple with his relatives. He parked the car, but forgot to apply the hand brake. The family left for the temple. When they returned, the vehicle was missing. Later, it was found the car had rolled down and crashed 30-feet into the valley. Vijayakumar informed police. Fire and rescue services personnel recovered the car with the help of a crane.
Four mobile phones seized from Puzhal
Chennai: In a raid at Puzhal prison on Thursday, four mobile phones were seized from two inmates. Police said prison officials conducted raids and found two inmates, one of them a life convict, using mobiles phones. The instruments were seized. A case has been registered. Prison officials have launched a crackdown after photos showing a few prisoners enjoying several amenities were leaked to the media. Earlier, officials had removed television and radio sets from prison cells. Officials said inmates had used the TV sets to also recharge their mobile phones using USB cables.