COIMBATORE: Four guest workers from Odisha were arrested here, for murdering their colleague as the latter abused their in-charge demanding a Diwali bonus.
The deceased D Binod Malik (27) from Baleswar in Odisha, was working at a private cotton mill in Pudhupalayam near Annur in the district. Along with other guest workers mostly from Odisha, he was staying at the quarters inside the mill campus. On Wednesday evening, Binod demanded a Diwali bonus from the mill management and argued with the mill owner inebriated. The mill management informed S Sridhar Sethi (44), another Odisha native working in-charge for the guest workers in the mill. Sethi took Binod to his room.
While moving to his room, Binod allegedly picked up a quarrel with Sethi accusing him of working against the guest workers, in favour of the management. Sethi and the other workers said that Binod injured his head after falling on a stone while attempting to assault Sethi. As he fell unconscious, they took him to Annur Government Hospital where he was declared dead, they added.
Annur police booked a case of suspicious death and initiated the probe. After investigation with guest workers and receiving the postmortem report, it was revealed that the tale spun by Sethi was false and he was murdered by a gang of guest workers from Odisha. Police sources said that while taking him to his room, Binod allegedly abused Sethi, who then ordered other guest workers to kill Binod. After beating him to death, they staged a drama claiming he had died accidentally.
Following investigation, the Annur police altered the case with murder charges on Saturday and arrested four suspects Sridhar Sethi, A Chaitanya Malik (30), M Santhosh Malik (28) M Sipun Sethi (23). They were remanded to prison on Saturday night, police sources added.