Chennai: A 55-year-old village assistant was found dead on Chengalpet-Kancheepuram Road in a hit and run incident on Friday morning. While police said it looked like that the government employee died under the wheels of a bullock cart, his family said he could have died under the wheels of a sand lorry when tried to prevent sand smuggling.
The deceased was identified as R Mani of Ullavur village near Palur. He went out from his house at around 5 am telling the family that he had some anti-smuggling work and later found dead. “He was found dead not very far from the lake bed.
The evidence at the scene indicated that he died after being hit by a bullock cart. We have also picked up one Mohan, 42, who used to smuggle sand from the Palar lake bed. His bullock cart had bloodstains. He said he lost control when Mani tried to intercept the cart on Friday early morning,” the police said.
When pointed out that the family was alleging that Mani was hit by a lorry, the police said that they had arrested Mohan under IPC 304-A (causing death due to negligence) and said further investigations will be based on post mortem report.
When contacted, revenue divisional officer, Arun Thamburaj, said that Mani was specifically assigned any work on Friday morning. “Usually if we conducting operation against sand mafia it will be carried out by a team and not by a village assistant alone,” he noted.
