Chain snatcher comes under wheel, driver beaten to death

According to police, the incidents happened at Manjambakkam around 8.45 pm on Thursday. The three – S Mani (18), a resident of Kavangarai near Puzhal, P Sugumar (18), and his younger brother aged 17 years, residents of ‘D’ Block in Erikkarai at Vyasarpadi – had snatched a mobile phone from a pedestrian identified as K Veera Ragavan, 46, of Ambattur-Pudur, when he was talking to someone on the phone near a fuel station on 200 feet road.

While they were escaping from the spot on a scooter (TN 18 AF 2309), they overtook a truck (TN 73 D 0599). But the rider lost control and dashed the two-wheeler against the truck, making them fall down. Police said Sugumar fell in front of the rear wheels and was crushed to death, while the other two escaped with minor injuries as they fell on the opposite side.

Sugumar’s death enraged his brother Vinoth and the juvenile, who dragged the truck driver, Mani (46), out of driver’s cabin and beat him up mercilessly. Onlookers intervened, rescued Mani and sent him to the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital in an ambulance. But the medical team there declared him, a native of Esaiyanur village near Arcot in Vellore district, brought dead. Doctors hinted that Mani could have died of possible damage to his neck bone.

Sugumar’s body, too, was shifted to the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital for autopsy.

The Madhavaram traffic investigation wing police have registered an accident case against the lorry driver, while the Madhavaram Milk Colony police have arrested two teenagers for beating the driver to death.