Eight persons, including four women, were arrested by the police for brutally beating a man to death at Veerappanchatiram here on Thursday evening.
M. Selvakumar of Sriram Nagar in Periyasemoor was attacked by the relatives of brother’s wife, who was living with another person. M. Selvakumar, 25, of Sriram Nagar in Periyasemoor is a powerloom worker and is married to Leelavathi, 20, and has a 2-year-old son Sudarsan.
On August 6, Selvakumar and his brother Manikandan traced her and forced her to come home. It angered her and she told her parents, Kannaiyan, 74, Papammal, 68; sisters, Parameswari, 32, and Jothimani, 35, and brother Moorthy, 30, that Selvakumar assaulted her. Her sisters had got separated from their husbands and were living with their parents.
On Thursday evening, when Selvakumar was going on a two-wheeler, Lakshmi’s Jothimani intercepted him and questioned why he forced Lakshmi to come home. Soon, it resulted in an altercation and Jothimani beat him up. She was joined by Lakshmi, parents, sister and relatives, Kumaresan, 40, Annadurai, 40, who assaulted him with logs leading to his death. Attempts by Leelavathi to save her husband failed as he sustained serious injuries and fell unconscious. He was rushed to the district government headquarters hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.
A video taken by a passerby showing the family members attacking Selvakumar went viral on social media and the police picked up the eight persons. A post-mortem was done and the body was handed over to the relatives. A case has been registered.
Erode police registered a case under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation) and 302 (murder) of IPC. All the eight were arrested and produced in the court and lodged at Coimbatore Central Prison.