Locals beat man to death for killing daily wager in Dindigul village

MADURAI: Tension prevailed at Lingavadi village, Natham taluk, Dindigul district, where a 24-year old youth was beaten to death by an angry mob on Saturday just hours after the deceased had murdered a daily wage earner, investigations revealed.

The youth was identified as K Udayakumar of Lingavadi, and was a notorious offender. Preliminary investigations by the Natham police showed that Udayakumar was beaten up by the villagers after he murdered R Thangaraja (40) from the same village near the Vinayagar temple around noon. After inquiries, Dindigul SP V Baskaran, said Thangaraja was killed during a drunken brawl. Udayakumar was grievously hurt after being thrashed and though he was rushed to the hospital, he could not be saved.

Sources said Udayakumar was a drunkard and often created trouble in public. On

Saturday morning, an inebriated Udayakumar had teased Ramasamy, Thangaraja’s father who reprimanded him for such behaviour. An irked Udayakumar then attacked Thangaraja with a machete and hacked him to death. This enraged the villagers and they caught Udayakumar, attacked him with stones and wooden logs, rendering him unconscious. Later, one of the villagers dropped a boulder on his head. A video clip of this incident went viral, showing six people beating Udayakumar brutally. Police force had to be deployed to prevent any untoward incident. Based on a complaint lodged by Ramasamy (70), Natham police filed a case under Sections 341, 294 (b) and 302 of IPC, sources said.

Four cases, including attempt to murder and cases of assault were booked against Udayakumar in 2016 and 2021 and he was earlier arrested by the Mathichiyam police in Madurai for preventive detention, the SP said.