COIMBATORE: Tension prevailed at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) premises, when family members, friends and relatives of a 27-year-old youth refused to receive his body, demanding that the police immediately arrest the culprits behind the youth’s murder.
S Thamaraiselvan, a civil engineer working as site supervisor with a private construction firm in the city, was beaten to death by a 30-member gang in front of his house in Rathinapuri on Sunday evening.
Around 4 pm on Sunday, Thamaraiselvan’s younger brother S Prashanth (22) had reportedly entered into an argument with a member of a rival gang near Thillai Nagar. Prashanth, who works as a two-wheeler mechanic was passing through a farm near the said area after work, when members of a gang who constantly instigated fights with him stopped him and assaulted him.
Thirty minutes later, after reaching home in Chinnaraj Nagar, Prashanth had explained the matter to his brother Thamaraiselvan, who had then confronted the gang who had harassed his brother in Thillai Nagar, which is about half-a-kilometre from Thamaraiselvan’s residence.
However, around 7 pm, a 30-member gang in an inebriated condition had gone to Thamaraiselvan’s house with weapons like knife, cricket bats, wooden logs and rods, two-wheeler silencers, bottles and had mercilessly beaten the youth continuously, before absconding.
While Prashanth managed to survive the attack sustaining head injuries and wounds in his body, Thamaraiselvan succumbed to injuries on the spot, before being taken to the government hospital. Prashant and his friend Jagadeesh are currently undergoing treatment at the CMCH.
Family members and friends of the deceased Thamaraiselvan including his two sisters staged a road blockade in front of the CMCH premises, demanding justice for their brother’s death.
However, police personnel at the hospital premises soon brought the situation under control.
“The gang which attacked Thamaraiselvan and his brother had also assaulted their neighbours including women, who had tried stopping them,” said Thamaraiselvan’s neighbour.
However, after the family members and friends were convinced by the police that efforts were being made to arrest the criminals in two days, they received Thamaraiselvan’s body at 3:30 pm from the hospital, and took it to Saravanampatty for cremation.