CHENNAI: The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Tuesday arrested a 25-year-old man who assaulted a drunk man at Tiruttani railway station on December 31. The incident, which was caught on camera, created a furore on social media as it happened within days of the brutal attack with machetes by four minor boys on an Odisha youth in a Tiruttani-bound EMU train and later at an abandoned quarters near Tiruttani railway station.
The accused, M Manikandan (25) of Tiruttani, told police that the victim, in an inebriated state, had made remarks about his mother which infuriated him.
After the video got shared widely, the Government Railway Police (GRP) traced the victim and clarified that the victim was in an inebriated state, and had said a few words (which he does not remember) to the assailants, after which they attacked him with their fists.
The victim, Jamal (39), who is involved in buying and selling used clothes, had visited a Tasmac outlet near the railway station with his friend and had walked up to the station platform to urinate, police said. In an inebriated state, Jamal verbally abused Manikandan, and the latter attacked him.
Manikandan was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
On December 27 (Saturday), Odisha youth Suraj (20), who was travelling on the Chennai-Tiruttani EMU, was accosted by four teenagers who attacked him with their machetes and filmed the act and uploaded it on social media.