Madurai City police have arrested a man, Raja, in connection with the death of a motorcyclist, K. Baskaran, 55, after hitting two boulders placed by the accused on GST Road in Tirunagar in the small hours of Tuesday.
The accused was sent to remand on Thursday.
The police said that the deceased, a laboratory technician at a city scan centre, was returning home after work when he hit the boulders. He was thrown off the vehicle and fell unconscious. He was rushed to Government Rajaji Hospital where he died.
The Traffic police had initially booked a case of death due to road accident. However, upon viewing the video footage of a CCTV network put up at a nearby police outpost, they found that the boulders were placed on the road by a man. “After several vehicles passed through the spot, a lorry driver stopped his vehicle, got down and removed the boulders that posed danger to roadusers. However, this man managed to chase him away without pushing the boulders from the road,” a police officer said.
Subsequently, Baskaran’s motorcycle hit the boulders and he fell down.
Another driver stopped at the accident site on seeing the victim. “The accused diverted his attention to bring water and stole the mobile phone from Baskaran. He also stealthily took Baskaran’s bag and threw it behind a culvert and slipped away from the spot as police arrived,” the officer said.
The police identified him through the CCTV footage and arrested him. However, the police said that enquiry had revealed that he had not done any such crime in the past.
He has been arrested under Sections 392 read with 397 (Robbery) and 304 (2) (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of Indian Penal Code.