COIMBATORE: A construction worker, who was brutally assaulted by a quartet in broad daylight here on Sunday, succumbed to injuries on Tuesday.Santhosh Kumar, 29, was repeatedly kicked and hit with a huge rock by the four in full public view around 1.30 pm on Sunday at the ARC Road junction on Mettupalayam Road. He was left heavily bleeding on the road, while passers-by paid no attention.The brutality was caught on a close circuit television (CCTV) camera at the traffic junction.Sources from the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, where the construction worker was given treatment, said he had sustained multiple injuries and his skull was badly damaged.The police said a petty quarrel at a TASMAC shop in the city had snowballed into the attack.Initially clueless after the assault complaint was filed, the police hit upon the idea of tracing the quartet through a CCTV camera on the traffic junction where the attack took place.The Saibaba Colony police then requested the police control room to pull out the required footage. “Based on the time specified by the complaint, we checked the recordings and found that the incident was true. Using the images, we were able to identify the attackers and arrest them immediately ,” said a police official.The four accused are Ganesan, 31, the district general secretary of the Bharat Sena, and his aides — Krishnan (28), R Murugan (21) and N Ramachandran (26).It all began as a petty quarrel at a TASMAC shop. “In a drunken state, Krishnan inadvertently brushed against Kumar, which led into a verbal altercation between them. Kumar, along with his friends, Saravanan (24) and Karthick ( 27), then slapped Krishnan and left the spot,” the police said.Krishnan soon phoned his friends Murugan and Ganesh. The trio, riding a motorcycle, traced Kumar walking with his friend near the ARC Junction and ran their vehicle into him. Sensing trouble, Karthick’s friend fled the spot, while Murugan got hold of Kumar.The video footage shows the trio brutally assaulting the construction worker with a heavy rock and repeatedly kicking him while the public, waiting for the traffic signal to turn green, remained mute spectators.N Ramachandran (26), who came on a two-wheeler, also joined the attackers and the four later fled on bikes. Kumar, in the meantime, lost consciousness.The police arrested and intially booked the four under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and remanded them in judicial custody. After Kumar’s death, they booked them under section 302 (murder) of the IPC and invoked the Goondas Act against them.
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