Three teenagers battered an Indian-origin garage worker to death for his Blackberry mobile phone in October last year after spotting him walking home from work at night, a British court heard on Wednesday.
Saravanakumar Sellappan (24), who was born in India, was knocked to the floor with such force that he later died from his injuries in Surrey. He was taken to the Mayday hospital in Croydon but was later discharged.
Sellappan had taken the bus from his job at the Esso garage in Hooley, Surrey, to Thornton Heath on October 17, 2009. He was found unconscious at a friend's house the next morning and died in hospital on October 19 from intracranial bleeding.
He was chatting with a friend as he passed the youths outside a betting shop in Thornton Heath, Surrey, and was followed into a dark residential street.
The court heard that Sellappan was then knocked to the floor just yards from his home. He managed to stagger to a friend's home to get help but fell into a coma and died the next day.
Jegir Ahmmadi (now 20), Roshan Samedov (18), and Awat Muradi (18) are on trial for the murder and robbery.
All three alleged killers, who now live in Croydon, came to the UK in 2007. Ahmmadi, an Iranian, and Armenians Samedov and Muradi all deny murder, manslaughter and robbery.
Jurors heard that they now blame each other for the attack, but prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee said they were “all in it together.”
CCTV cameras captured Sellappan's journey as he got off the bus at 9.04 p.m. and walked towards Langdale Road.
According to a report in Mail online, Mr. Jafferjee told the court: “He was walking home and he was speaking to a friend on his Blackberry. He had the tragic misfortune to walk past the spot where these three defendants were.
“They followed him for some distance until he turned into a quiet residential street in Thornton Heath.”
Sellappan was then struck in the head by at least one blow. “It was delivered with sufficient ferocity to knock him to the ground and within hours, as a result of the brain injury he received, he had fallen into an irreversible coma and died the following day,” Mr. Jafferjee said.
“Each of these defendants was subsequently to blame each other for what happened. The prosecution alleged they were all in it together,” he added.
