Chennai: Four days after a burglar, who broke into the farmhouse of a retired central government official near Sriperumbudur, was killed after getting beaten up by the caretakers of the house, the police have ascertained the identity of the deceased. Five of his accomplices were also arrested, police sources said.
The farmhouse at Podavur village, 50 kms from the city belongs to Ushapriyan (68) who resides in Bengaluru. A couple from Podavur village - Saravanan (46) and Yamuna (39) – were appointed to take care of the house. The deceased and his gang used to sell fish in bicycles in and around Sriperumbudur and they had locked down the farmhouse to break-in after a recce, police said.
Police identified the deceased as Ranjith alias David Billa (27) of Uthukottai in Thiruvallur district.
On the night that he was beaten to death, he was accompanied by Satish, Perumal, Manikandan, Kannan and Barani, all of whom fled the scene.
Two of them surrendered to the Sriperumbudur police leading to the arrest of others and the establishing of the identity of the deceased, police said.
Last Tuesday, around 6 pm, Yamuna went to her house after cleaning up the farmhouse and switching on its lights.
Two hours later, when she happened to pass by the farmhouse, she noticed the lights had been switched off. Alarmed, she alerted her husband to check on the property and found the front door had been broken open.
As they went inside, three persons rushed out of the house and in the process attacked Yamuna. Two of them managed to scale the compound wall and escape while one of the burglars fell down.
A mob from the village rushed to the farmhouse on hearing of the burglary attempt. The suspect, who fell down and was caught, was treated to mob justice eventually leading to his death.
