A 60-year-old man was beaten to death while he tried to stop a person from looting a motor from a refrigerator in a dhaba on Thursday.
According to the police, K. Nagarajan (31), of Udaiyapatti, is running a dhaba at Chinna Seeragapadi.
Recently, he got another dhaba for lease at Kuttakadu near Veerapandi and is carrying out renovation work.
His dhaba cook, Joseph (25), stays at the Kuttakadu dhaba at night time. On Wednesday night, Nagarajan’s father, M. Kandhasamy (60), stayed in the hotel to monitor renovation works in the morning.
In the early hours of Thursday, Joseph called Nagarajan’s relative Ramesh and said an unidentified person attacked Kandhasamy.
Nagarajan and their relatives who rushed to the dhaba found Kandhasamy’s body with serious injuries, and the cook, Joseph, was missing.
Immediately, they alerted the Attaiyampatti police, who came to the spot and sent the body to Salem Government Hospital for a post-mortem. The police nabbed Joseph on Thursday afternoon and inquired.
The police investigation revealed that while Joseph tried to loot a motor from a refrigerator in the dhaba, Kandhasamy saw it and scolded him, which caused a quarrel between them.
During the quarrel, Joseph attacked Kandhasamy with an iron rod and allegedly killed him. The police registered a case and arrested Joseph.
