Father-son duo assaulted by villagers for attempt to flee after accident

According to the police, Babu alias Palanisamy (55), an onion trader from Semmedu near Alandurai, had knocked down Rangasamy (45) from the same neighbourhood on Siruvani Road on Tuesday night. “Palanisamy was returning home from Boluvampatty on his two-wheeler late night when the mishap happened. While nearing Kallipalayam, he lost control and rammed the vehicle on Rangasamy who was crossing the road on foot. Both of them were injured in the incident,” the police said.

Meanwhile, on coming to know of the incident, Hari Prasad, son of Palanisamy, arrived at the accident spot in his jeep. “He rescued his father alone and tried to drive away. However, the villagers insisted him to take along the injured pedestrian too. This led to a quarrel and the villagers blocked his jeep from being going away,” the police said.

After a while, Hari Prasad, in an attempt to speed away, steered his jeep towards the right side in a reckless manner. In the melee, Senthil Kumar (42) got hit by the vehicle and he suffered injury. Following this, the irate villagers hurled stones at the glass window of the jeep and smashed it. They also gave a sound thrashing to both the son and his father.

As tension prevailed, the Alandurai police rushed to the spot and attempted to pacify the angry villagers. They also sent an injured Rangasamy, Senthil Kumar and Palanisamy to a hospital for treatment. The damaged jeep was seized and taken to police station.

To prevent any further untoward incident, police have been deployed in the Kallipalayam area.

The police on Wednesday booked Palanisamy on charges of causing mishap and also a case against 50 villagers for ransacking the jeep and issuing death threats.

A separate case had also been booked against Palanisamy and his son Hari Prasad under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act for allegedly indulging in casteist slur against Senthil Kumar.