Beaten by mob in ‘child kidnap’ bid, man dies in Chennai

CHENNAI: Suspected of attempting to abduct a sevenyear-old boy and thrashed by a mob in Chinnayan Chathiram, around 60km west of Chennai, a stranger escaped from Kancheepuram Government Hospital but died hours later under mysterious circumstances.
Investigators said the man, around 40 years old but still unidentified, appeared to be from north or central India, and spoke a dialect that no one could understand. Locals in the town, near Neervalur in Kancheepuram, along the highway to Bengaluru (NH48), found his body at 3.45pm, just 500m from the hospital, six hours after doctors at the hospital reported him missing at 9.45am.

Man had severe head injuries but was still conscious: Doctors

Chennai: “Locals found him sitting near a boy, who was asleep withhisfamily outside their house at Chinnayan Chathiram, around 6.15am,” an investigating officer said. “They thought he was acting strangely and someone suggested that he was trying to abductthesleeping child.”

A group of people soon gathered and confronted the man but could not communicate with him because he spoke an unfamiliar language and did not appear to know Tamil. Unable to answer the questions of the locals, their hackles raisedby thechild abduction allegation, the man triedtoslip away.

The townspeople allowed him to go, but chased him away, warning him to not to return, the officer said. “An hour later, the locals spotted him in the vicinity again,” he said. “They decided that he was out to abduct children. Several people thrashed him till he lost consciousness and then called for an ambulance.”

Emergency services staff tooktheseverely injured man in an ambulance to Kancheepuram GovernmentHospital. The locals at 7.45am called the police to inform them about what had happened.

Doctors and hospital administrators said the man had severe head injuries but was conscious and appeared to be restless. “We advised nurses to give him some time to rest,” said a doctor who attended to the man. “As staff members were preparing to take the man for a CT scan, he escaped from the hospital. When the police brought him back to the hospital at 3.45pm, hewasdead.”

The police said the man scaled a wall to escape from the hospital. Investigators could not explain how, after demonstrating the ability to climb over a wall and flee, the man diedjusthourslater,only half a kilometre from the hospital.

“The man sustained severeheadinjuries, possibly in the attack,” the officer said. “He was not carrying any proof of identity. We are trying to determine who he was and where he came from.” The local police registered a suspicious death and are awaiting an autopsy report from thehospital.