Chennai: Lawyer shoots at hotel manager, lands in jail

Chennai: A high court advocate and his assistant who tried to shoot a restaurant manager near Kelambakkam were arrested on Wednesday midnight. The incident happened after a room boy reportedly served non-vegetarian food to the advocate.

The police had identified the advocate as S. Mathavan (60) of Tirunelveli, said to be practising in Madurai high court. “Mathavan and his assistant Muthu Rak (38) had booked a room in the restaurant on Wednesday night and ordered vegetable fried rice,” the police said.

According to police sources, room service boy Kannan (24) served the food at 11 pm. “Knowing that he had been served with chicken fried rice in place of vegetable rice, Mathavan called Kannan and allegedly slapped him repeatedly,” sources added.

Distraught Kannan complained about the incident to restaurant manager Sankaralingam. When the manager asked Mathavan to apologise to Kannan for his act, he also allegedly slapped the manager too.

The incident irked the hotel staff and they blocked Mathavan and Muthu Rak while they tried to check out. “The employees had sought an apology for attacking their manager and colleague at around 12 am. Angered Mathavan who was also in the inebriated state, took a revolver and threatened the hotel staff,” the sources said.

According to the police, Mathavan also aimed and shot at Sankaralingam. “Fortunately, Mathavan missed his target and the bullet damaged a car parked nearby,” the police said.

Meanwhile, the Kelambakkam police entered the scene and apprehended Mathavan and his assistant. 32 mm revolver and 49 bullets were confiscated from the advocate. The police also said that Mathavan has a valid license for the revolver.

However, the police had registered a case under attempt to murder, assault section among section 27 of the Arms Act against the advocate and his assistant. “They were produced before Chengalpattu magistrate and sent to judicial custody,” the police said.