CHENNAI: A college student and his three friends on Tuesday killed a 25-year-old man on the suspicion that he stole the student’s bike at K K Nagar two months ago. Police have arrested the four and a magistrate court sent them to Puzhal prison. The deceased was identified as M Akash, of Kattupakkam. He was involved in bike thefts and petty offences. His friend S Tamilselvan, 19, of Chinna Porur, was left injured in the attack and has been hospitalized.
The arrested were identified as M Ramachandran, 20, of Kannikapuram, a final year B A student; C Abhishek, 20, an AC mechanic; A Santhoshkumar, 20, an electrician; and M Deena, all three of whom are from K K Nagar.
Police said Ramachandran, whose two-wheeler went missing in February, had lodged a complaint at the K K Nagar police station. He, however, also took it upon himself to find his bike and began combing through CCTV camera footage from the area. It was then he found a group stealing his bike. Abhishek identified one of the thieves as Tamilselvan.
On Sunday, Ramachandran and Abhishek nabbed Tamilselvan when he was passing by K K Nagar around 3pm and using information they gained from him, Ramachandran and the other accused caught Akash. They brought him to Ramachandran’’\s house on Monday.
Tamilselvan told police that he and Akash were tied up in a room and beated with logs. Around 12.30am on Tuesday, the accused asked Tamilselvan where Ramachandran’s bike was. He was then allowed to take some water to Akash. Tamilselvan found his friend unconscious and alerted their captors.
Panicked, Ramachandran informed his mother Valarmathi about the incident and she immediately informed police. A team rushed to the spot and informed the ‘108’ ambulance service. However, paramedical staff checked Akash and declared him dead.
Ramachandran and his friends were secured and Akash’’s body was sent to the government hospital for postmortem. The accused were booked for murder and wrongful confinement.