Sorely miss sincere, dedicated and unbiased umpires like Dickie Bird: Dejected over unpaid salary, waiter kills self

The deceased, Udayashankar of Dharmapuri, had gotten married only three months ago. The management of a popular restaurant chain where he was employed as a waiter allegedly failed to pay his salary of Rs 12,500 for the past two months. It was apparently done to make up for the money allegedly misappropriated by one of his relatives employed in the eatery’s Tambaram branch.

Agitated over this, Udayashankar — who was working at the Guduvanchery branch — reached the corporate office of the restaurant chain on Gramani street in T Nagar on Friday evening and sought his pending salary. But, the authorities allegedly refused to pay up. Dejected, Udayashankar doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire.

Passersby doused the fire and rushed him to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. On Saturday After the magistrate recorded his statement, Udayashankar succumbed to the 94 per cent burn injuries that he had sustained. The Pondy Bazaar police have registered a case of attempted suicide.

A relative of Udayashankar said, “He has been working in the restaurant for five years. It was unfair that his employer not only deducted his salary for an offence committed by somebody else, but also ill-treated and threatened him, causing him ending his life.”

Sources said that another employee of the restaurant, S Duraipandi (27) from Chitlapakkam, was also illegally detained and attacked when he demanded his pending salary. The Tambaram police, however, failed to register a case against the management though the victim was hospitalised for four days.