Following the arrest of seven persons by the Coimbatore District Police in connection with the murder of a Dalit man near Sulur, two more accused surrendered before the Principal District Judge court on Friday.
According to police sources, Manivasagam alias Vignesh (30) and Subramanian (45) surrendered before the court on Friday afternoon and were sent to remand under judicial custody. With this, a total of nine persons have been remanded for their alleged involvement in the murder and five accused, including a woman, are absconding.
The case involves M. Kesavan (47) of Vinayagar Kovil Street at Edayarpalayam, who belonged to a Scheduled Caste, being attacked by a group of dominant caste persons during a clash near Sulur for allegedly not apologising for an accident on February 7.
His wife lodged a complaint at the Sulthanpet police station and admitted him at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH).
On Thursday evening, he died without responding to treatment and the Sulthanpet police arrested Marimuthu, Mayilsamy, Boopathy, Mohanraj, Balaguru, Senthilkumar and Ganeshan. The accused were booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code including 302 (Murder) and 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Earlier in the day, several organisations staged a demonstration outside the mortuary in CMCH – where the deceased’s body was kept – demanding action against all the accused involved in the case.
Speaking to the mediapersons, lawyer C. Venmani alleged that the District Collector and Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore district were yet to conduct inspection at the spot where the assault took place and demanded that the State government must provide job to the deceased’s son. The family members agreed to accept the body on Friday evening, according to the police sources.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes sought details of the case from District Collector G.S. Sameeran and Superintendent of Police S. Selvanagarathinam.
