Ramanathapuram
Traffic was hit for about five hours on the Ramanathapuram-Rameswaram National Highway as family members and relatives of M. Ramachandran, 48, a fisherman who was murdered on Saturday, placed the body on the road and staged a protest, pressing for a charter of demands, including compensation to the family of the deceased.
Ramachandran was walking near the auto stand at Nagachi on Saturday when two persons, identified as M. Muneeskumar, 27, and his brother M. Karthi, 22, attacked him with iron rods. The victim, who suffered serious head injuries, succumbed to them while being taken to the hospital.
Accepting the body after post-mortem at Government District Headquarters Hospital here on Sunday, the kin placed the body on the national highway near the Union Office at Uchipuli around 12 30 p.m. and staged the protest, demanding the remand of the accused under the Goondas Act and compensation to the families.
As the revenue and police officials were trying to persuade them to remove the body, they took the body around 3.30 p.m. and placed it again on the National Highway, this time near the Uchipuli police station.
After a team of officials — Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Suman, Additional Superintendent of Police Loyola Ignatius, Rameswaram DSP Magesh and Tahsildar Muthulakshmi — held talks with them and assured to take action on their demands, the protesters removed the body around 5 p.m. for the funeral, police said.
Though police had arrested the accused soon after the murder, the family members staged the protest stating they were yet to be remanded and expressed apprehension that the police might let them off after the funeral. When the protesters blocked the National Highway, police diverted traffic at Thamaraikulam road near INS Parundu from here and at Pudumadam from Rameswaram side.