Car runs over man sleeping in parking area at Pondy Bazaar

CHENNAI: A man reversing his car ran over 70-year-old security guard sleeping in the parking area of a shopping complex at Pondy Bazaar on Saturday night.
While the elderly man, identified as S Venu, was rushed to a hospital where he died of injuries, police are hunting for the car and driver involved in the accident.
Police said Venu, a resident of Dr Thomas Road in Teynampet, was a guard at a nearby building but chose to regularly sleep in the parking lot of another complex as most of the lights were switched off. On Saturday, he went to sleep around 9pm, police said, quoting some witnesses. Around 11.15pm, a man taking out his car ran over him.
As it was dark, he wouldn't have spotted the elderly man on the ground but sped away after realising he had run over him, police said.
Witnesses later told police that Venu usually slept on one side, but on the day of the incident would have rolled over and come on to the path in which the car was going. After a while, one of the security guards at the complex heard his screams, growing fainter by the minute, rushed to the spot. Venu was already bleeding profusely from the chest. The guard called a few others at the spot and Venu was rushed to the Government Royapettah Hospital where he died of his injuries. The body is currently at the hospital and is awaiting a postmortem examination.
A team of the Pondy Bazaar police which registered a case under IPC Section 304A (causing death due to negligence) is searching for the car driver.
Police are checking the footage from the various CCTV cameras at the spot to get the registration number of the vehicle and trace the driver.