Krishnagiri: As many as 500 traders shut shop on Monday to protest the death of a pawnbroker who died under mysterious circumstances and whose body was recovered from a railway track near Hosur in Krishnagiri district.
The body of the deceased pawnbroker Hemanth Chand, 50, was brought to his residence at MG road in Hosur today. Police transported the body from Dharmapuri medical college and hospital, where the autopsy was completed.
His relatives and others were not ready to accept Hemanth's body till the criminals responsible for his death were arrested. They also took out a rally in a bid to gherao the Hosur sub-collector's office.
However, the police stopped them at the tri-junction, few meters before the sub-collector's office. Then, the angry mob resorted to road roko, disrupting traffic at that place.
As talks failed to disburse the mob peacefully, the police arrested nearly 500 traders including a few women for creating ‘nuisance’ by disturbing the traffic movement on Denkannikottai-Hosur road.
Later, they were released without registering a case after the traders and relatives relented to receive Hemanth's body and also arrange for the funeral without making trouble.The pawnbroker's body was then taken in procession amid tight police security to the crematorium at Mullai nagar, on Rayakottai-Hosur road. The mourners also shouted slogans demanding police to arrest those responsible for his death.
Hemanth Chand had gone missing on Saturday and did not return home. His relatives received a one-line ‘WhatsApp’ message “mangal chand bafna Hosur Rakhi aluminum responsible for my death”.
The shocking message believed to have been texted by Hemanth had reportedly reached his relatives 20 minutes after he left home that day. On Sunday, he was found dead and his body was recovered from a railway track at a point near Onnalvadi village, three-km from Hosur railway station.
His two-wheeler was recovered from a different location leading to doubts about his death. His relatives allege that he was kidnapped for money and then killed before dumping his body on the railway track.
The Hosur police who registered a case of suspicious death are yet to probe whether Hemanth was abducted and murdered as alleged by his relatives, or the pawnbroker committed suicide by throwing himself before a running train.
