Special teams have been formed to nab two policemen who allegedly assaulted a meat shop owner and inflicted multiple injuries on him with knife and broken liquor bottle after the meat seller informed higher-ups about the chicken being stolen from his shop by the policemen.
Police said policemen Balakrishnan and Sathish, both attached to Kaadalkudi police station, called meat shop owner N. Muthuselvan, 33, of Vadakku Vedapatti near Vilaathikulam over the phone on August 16 midnight and asked him to give them one kilogram of chicken. Mr. Muthuselvan’s wife Jaya, who attended the call, told the policemen that her husband was fast asleep and hence would give them them chicken in the morning.
Even though the policemen called him continuously over the phone, he did not attend the call.
When Mr. Muthuselvan went to his shop on August 17 morning, policemen Balakrishnan and Sathish asked the meat shop owner if the number of chicken in his shop were intact. Upon counting the number of chicken in the shop, Mr. Muthuselvan understood that the policemen, after breaking the lock in the shop, had stolen a chicken.
Since the matter was taken-up with Superintendent of Police S. Jayakumar, after confirming that they were involved in the theft, he shifted the two erring policemen to the Armed Reserve Police unit.
Agitated over it, Balakrishnan and Sathish allegedly attacked Mr. Muthuselvan and inflicted cut injuries on him with knife and broken liquor bottle. The duo also attacked other traders as they tried to rescue the meat shop owner, who was admitted to the Vilathikulam Government Hospital with multiple cut injuries.
After the Kaadalkudi police registered case against Balakrishnan and Sathish under Sections 294 (b) (reciting or uttering obscene words), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation), Mr. Jayakumar has formed special teams to nab them.
Sources in the police also said three policemen in Kovilpatti took six accused detained in connection with a case to an eatery near Kovilpatti Old Municipality building on Wednesday night. After enjoying their dinner in the non-vegetarian eatery, the policemen left the spot along with the accused reportedly without paying the bill. When the eatery owner asked the policemen to pay the bill, he was silenced with the warning that he would not be allowed to keep his eatery opened after 9 p.m. as the lockdown was in force.
In another incident, owner of an eatery on Maathaankovil Street was threatened by two policemen couple of months ago after the old man told them that there was nothing to be served to them as they had come late in the night.
“Both the incidents were being probed,” said sources.
