Two persons assaulted a taxi driver and hijacked the vehicle in the small hours of Saturday near Palladam.
According to sources, the two persons, yet to be identified, went on late Friday night to a taxi service in Coimbatore saying that they would like to hire a taxi to Palani. After giving their name and address, they took the taxi around 11 p.m. V. Arul Prakash, 21, son of Vellingiri of Maniakarampalayam, was the driver.
After reaching Palani and completing their work, they returned to Coimbatore. On the return journey, the two had asked Prakash to stop the vehicle in Pulliampalayam on the Palladam – Udumalpet Road. They said that they wanted to attend nature’s call around 4.30 a.m. Saturday.
The two had also asked Prakash to take a quick nap.
A little later, after ascertaining that Prakash was asleep, one of the two opened the door, pulled out Prakash and thrashed him. Prakash after regaining composure began retaliating. When the two were fighting it out, the second person joined the attack against Prakash, who was completely overpowered.
The two stabbed Prakash, took away his mobile phone and Rs. 300 in cash, then pushed him into the bushes and fled the scene in the car.
An hour later, around 5.30 a.m. after failing to get help from road users passing by, Prakash slowly made his way to a residential locality to seek help. The residents helped him, called up the ambulance service, which took him to the Palladam Government Hospital.
The Palladam Police, who were alerted, rushed to the Hospital and took a complaint to register a case in this connection. The police said that had they got a timely alert, they, in turn, could have alerted their personnel at check posts.
