Mistaken for child lifters, group thrashed, woman dies

According to the police, Mohan Kumar of Malaysia, along with his relatives Rukmani (65) of old Pallavaram in Chennai and three others Chandrasekar, Gajendran and Venketesan, were on their way in a car to offer prayers at the temple of their family deity on the Polur-Jamunamarudur road in Tiruvannamalai district.

They stopped the car at Thambu Kottanparai, a wayside village and while asking for directions, handed out sweets to some children who had gathered there. On seeing this, local residents became suspicious that they were a gang of child lifters who were handing out sedative-laced sweets and attacked them.

Sensing trouble, the group tried to leave the area but were chased by villagers on two-wheelers who managed to stall the car at Kaliyam village.

Here, the chasers were aided by local villagers who attacked the passengers and also damaged the car.

On receiving information, Polur police rushed to the spot and shifted the injured group to a nearby hospital. Rukmani was pronounced dead on arrival while the others were moved to the Tiruvannamalai government hospital. 

Later, Gajendran was shifted from the government hospital to a private hospital in Vellore.

Talking to the media, Tiruvanamalai SP R Ponni said if the public had suspected someone, they should have immediately informed the police and not taken the law into their own hands. Condemning the attack on the group, which led to the death of Rukmani, Ponni said, “Though SI Dayalan begged the crowd with folded hands to desist from the attack, it fell on deaf ears.” Both Ponni and Vellore range DIG R Vanitha conducted inquiries on the spot. No arrests have been made so far.