KOCHI: A brawl between two groups of people while allegedly approaching a transgender sex worker culminated in the murder of a 33-year-old at Kalathiparambu road near Ernakulam South railway station in the wee hours of Sunday. The police arrested three persons involved in the crime within hours after the incident.
The deceased is Shyam, 33, a native of Varapuzha. Shyam’s friend Arun Antony, 26, of Varappuzha, has been admitted to a hospital with serious injuries. The police have arrested Harshad, 30, of Nettoor; Thomas, 53, of Kumbalam, and Sudheer, 38, of Madavanna in connection with the incident. Harshad and Thomas were directly involved in the crime.
The police said Shyam and Arun reached Kalathiparambu Road on a bike at around 1am on Sunday. The three accused also reached the place at the same time in a car and stopped in front of the victims’ bike. The incident took place between 1 am to 2.30 am. An autorickshaw driver, who is a Thoppumpady native, was already standing there with the transgenders.
Both the groups and the autorickshaw driver were trying to approach the same transgender and soon Harshad and Thomas entered into an altercation with the autorickshaw driver. Meanwhile, Shyam hummed a song and this irked the first accused who threatened to stab him. The second accused also warned Shyam saying not to mess with the Ernakulam natives.
“As the argument between the accused persons and the autorickshaw driver heated up, Harshad took out a knife from the car. When Shyam and Arun tried to dissuade them from the fight, Harshad stabbed Shyam multiple times. Arun also got stabbed on his hand and back while trying to block the attack on Shyam,” said an FIR registered based on a statement by Arun.
After the incident, the victims escaped the place and reached Ernakulam South over bridge from where they took an autorickshaw to a private hospital. However, Shyam died at the hospital. The autorickshaw driver who was at the crime spot was also attacked and escaped from the scene. Deputy commissioner of police S Sasidharan said Shyam suffered five stab injuries and the one on the chest turned fatal.
“Based on the footage from the CCTV cameras in the vicinity, we identified the car. We found that the persons involved in the crime were from the Panangad area. Around 72 police officials worked on tracing and arresting the accused persons,” he said.