Five transwomen held for killing man who misbehaved with them

Coimbatore: The rural police on Monday arrested five transwomen on charges of murdering a 45-year-old man near a bakery on Coimbatore-Mettupalayam road at Thudiyalur in the district on July 9.
The arrested transwomen were identified as R Reshmika alias Manikandan, 26, S Gowthami alias Rajagopal, 20, T Mamtha alias Prothar, 22, H Harinitha, 23, and S Rubi alias Ruban, 26.
Police said except one transwoman who is from Odisha, all others are from different districts in the state. They were residing in a rental hous at Kavundampalayam.
Police said T Dharmalingam, 45, of Ponnamaravathi in Pudukkottai district, was working as a cook in a hotel at Thudiyalur. On July 8 around 1.30am, he was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital with injuries on his head, waist and right hand after he fell from his friend’s motorcycle at Thudiyalur. He died without responding to the treatment on the next day around 5am. The Thudiyalur police registered a case under Section 174 CrPC (suspicious death).
However, the postmortem report revealed that Dharmalingam had suffered injuries on his back side of the head, abdomen and abrasion on both hands. He had suffered internal bleeding in the stomach as well. The injuries were caused due to severe assaults.
On further investigation, police found out that after completing his work, Dharmalingam had approached the transwomen for physical pleasure on July 8 around 1am. He was under the influence of alcohol and misbehaved with them. Irked over his wayward behaviour, the transwomen assaulted Dharmalingam, causing bleeding injuries to him. Police altered the case to 302 (murder) from 174 CrPC on Monday and arrested the five transwomen.