A police constable and a shop employee have been arrested after a 24-year-old worker from Uttar Pradesh died in Sriperumbudur. Police link his death to injuries allegedly sustained in an assault.
Sailesh Kumar arrived in Sriperumbudur on October 5 with eight others seeking work. They found jobs at a catering canteen and rented part of a house owned by traffic police constable S. Gnanamoorthy.
Police said Kumar went to a grocery shop operating from the house on Tuesday night and asked for paan masala. An argument followed after shop employee A. Arif told him it was unavailable. Kumar then returned to the workers’ accommodation.
Police allege Arif told Gnanamoorthy about the dispute. The two men then went to the accommodation and told the workers to leave. During the confrontation, they allegedly kicked Kumar. A company human-resources representative later arrived and took the workers away. Kumar was found dead on the premises the next morning.
Sriperumbudur police initially registered a case of unnatural death and sent the body to Government General Hospital in Kancheepuram for a post-mortem. The autopsy found a liver injury and internal bleeding. Police then changed the case to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Gnanamoorthy, 33, and Arif, 26, were arrested on Thursday and remanded to judicial custody. Their alleged role in Kumar’s death remains part of the police case.