Chennai: A 25-year-old man fell into an 8-ft deep on Sunday night pit while reportedly engrossed in music from the headphones being played from his mobile phone. The incident came to light only on Monday morning after contract workers, involved in Under Ground Drainage (UGD) works being carried out in Ramalingam street in Madippakkam, alerted cops on sighting a body floating in the pit.
The deceased was identified as Siva Guru, resident of Mannadiyamman koil street in Madippakkam. He was working in the sales division of a private telecom company and had set out from his house to visit some of his friends in his old neighbourhood, Ramalingam street, on Sunday evening. After Guru went missing, his elder brother Sivalingam, a techie, came looking for him and learned that he had already left from his friends' place.
Efforts to reach Guru over his mobile proved futile. Following an extensive search late into the night, Sivalingam approached Madippakkam Police on Monday.
Since the techie's description of his missing sibling fit that of the unidentified body fished out of the UGD pit, cops suggested that he take a look at the same at Chromepet Government Hospital. Sivalingam established the identity of the deceased as his brother with the help of the dress he was wearing for the Sunday evening chitchat with his friends.
Police dismissed the death as one that could have happened because of drunken stupor after the family revealed that the deceased was a teetotaler.
"He was wearing his headphones when we took him out of the pit. His phone was also recovered from the pit. He would have been listening to music and stepped into the ditch which was filled with water to its brim", said a senior police official. After the postmortem, the family took the body to Villupuram, their native place for the last rites.
