CHENNAI: A lawyer and a law student beat to death a man with mental health issues in public view and in the presence of police at the Tambaram bus stand on Saturday night.
As per police, Ranganathan, 59, a resident of Ayanavaram, Chennai, who was undergoing treatment for mental health issues for the past three years, reportedly obstructed traffic near the Tambaram bus stand, causing a disturbance.
Passersby alerted the police, and two patrol policemen quickly arrived at the scene around 9pm.
They took Ranganathan aside and realised that he was mentally unstable. After checking his shirt, they found a card with phone numbers. Ranganathan also remembered the phone number one of his relatives. Police contacted the family and told them where Ranganathan, who went missing on Feb 19, was.
While the policemen waited with Ranganathan for his family, a car stopped at the scene. A lawyer, Manikandan, 33, and his friend Vinoth, 28, a final-year law student, stepped out to buy bottles of water from a nearby shop.
‘Attacked him saying the car was new’
The two men were on their way to a family function in Tindivanam. Ranganathan suddenly ran toward the car and banged on the door. Claiming that their car was new, Manikandan and Vinoth attacked him, said police.
The two policemen attempted to intervene, but Vinoth overpowered them and pushed Ranganathan on to the road and his head slammed against a cement slab. Ranganathan suffered severe injuries, and emergency responders rushed him to Chromepet Govt Hospital, where doctors later declared him dead. Authorities sent his body for a postmortem exam.
Following the attack, police arrested both Manikandan and Vinoth. “Ranganathan used to leave his house often and return after a few days. So the family did not lodge any police complaint,” added a police officer.