Duo thrash vigilant officer, arrested

TRICHY: A superintendent attached to the corporation vigilance wing of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), Kumbakonan Division, was attacked by some two persons after a verbal duel. The duo was later arrested by the police. The victim, B Muthaiah, a vigilance superintendent, is attached to the corporation, whose office is opposite the Trichy collector’s office.
Muthaiah was on his usual regimen of his morning walk when he confronted the two men, A Arockiasamy (58), a mason and P Arockiasamy (49), a carpenter from Periyamilagupaarai. Police said that both of them were in conversation at around 6.45 am, which Muthaiah mistook as something that was aimed at mocking him. An enraged Muthaiah picked up a quarrel with them, and also hit them with a stick. Both of them tried to explain that they were talking about something else, but the vigilant officer was not convinced. As a last resort, the duo decided to hit him back.
A bleeding Muthaiah was admitted to the government hospital after the police registered a complaint against the duo in the Cantonment police station in which Muthaiah had served as an assistant commissioner before being transferred to Nagapattinam as DSP. Both the accused were later arrested and a case under sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC had been registered.
Hailing from Madurai, Muthaiah used to stay in the office premises after he was posted as a superintendent of corporation vigilance in Trichy. His colleagues who knew him in close quarters told TOI that Muthaiah was known to be a knee-jerk arbiter, and a temperamental officer. However, the police did not rule out the possibility of previous enmity between the accused and the police officer as the latter had a long stint in Trichy in the past.
Interestingly, the vigilant officer left the hospital without informing the doctors, said assistant commissioner (intelligence section) C P Kandasamy.