Man lies dead on pavement, cops come after 4 hours

Man lies dead on pavement, cops come after 4 hours

B A Raju & Ram Sundaram TNN

Chennai:  23.06.2020

At the heart of the city, near Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, an elderly man lay dead unattended for nearly four hours on the platform of EVR Periyar Salai on Monday. After ambulances remained unavailable, police moved his body in a tricycle to RGGGH.

The man in his mid-60s, who is yet to be identified, died around 9am. There was no clarity on whether it was due to illness or starvation. But none of the public who crossed the stretch volunteered to check on him fearing he could have Covid-19 infection.

Besides commoners, hundreds of civic officials crossed the stretch to reach Greater Chennai Corporation headquarters Ripon Building in the morning and police were also patrolling the stretch to book those violating lockdown norms.

People who were in the vicinity said they noticed him mumbling in the morning in hunger but thought he was drunk. Given the intense lockdown was in place, volunteers who distribute food to the homeless across the city, are unable to move around the city freely. There was only one Amma canteen, which serves food for free, in the surrounding and the facility was shut early on Sunday and Monday, said a group of metrorail workers. The workers alerted police about the body around 12 noon.

Soon, a team from the Periamet police station arrived at the spot and called for a mortuary van or ambulance to shift the body to RGGGH. But all vehicles were engaged in moving around Covid-19 patients.

After waiting for an hour, police hired a tricycle from a fisherman by paying from their own pockets. The body was cleared around 1pm and taken for postmortem.

The Periamet police have a filed a case under section 174 of the CrPC (investigation of unnatural deaths) and will put a notice in newspapers on Tuesday after publishing a notice through Crime Records Bureau.

NONE TO CARE: The man in his 60s, who is yet to be identified, lay dead on the pavement of arterial EVR Periyar Salai for four hours, just metres from Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital

The elderly man’s body was moved to RGGGH in a tricycle as ambulances were unavailable