CHENNAI: A pair of robbers killed a truck driver in full public view in Madhavaram on Thursday night when, in a bizarre concatenation of events, the driver hit their getaway vehicle and ran over their accomplice as they attempted to flee after mugging a pedestrian.Police detained the two robbers, one of them a minor, and charged them with murder Investigators on Friday said S Mani, 18, of Kavangarai near Puzhal, P Sugumar, 18, and a 17-year-old boy, all residents of Erikkarai in Vyasarpadi, grabbed a cellphone from K Veera Ragavan, 46, in Manjambakkam, Madhavaram, at 8.40pm on Thursday.The three robbers were cruising for targets on a scooter (TN18 AF2309) at 8.40pm on Thursday when they spotted Veera Ragavan, a resident of Ambattur-Pudur, speaking on his cellphone near a fuel station on 200 Feet Road in Manjambakkam, an investigating officer said.“The gang halted and, while Mani and the minor waited on the scooter, Sugumar grabbed Veera Ragavan’s phone, rushed back and urged Mani to speed away,” he said. “Before they could escape, however, a truck (TN73 D0599) hit the two-wheeler from behind.”The impact threw the trio off the scooter. Sugumar fell on one side of the truck and died under its rear wheels. Mani and the juvenile, who landed on the other side of the vehicle, escaped with bruises. “Mani and the minor reacted violently when they realized that Sugumar was dead,” the officer said. “They ran to the truck, hauled P Mani, 46, out of the driver’s cabin and thrashed him furiously.”It was clear, he said, that the pair meant to inflict severe injuries on the driver: They repeatedly punched the trucker in the neck till he collapsed. Doctors later found that they had broken his neck.“Mani and the minor then tried to escape on the scooter but policemen on duty in the locality and a few onlookers gave chase,” the officer said. “They caught the pair less than 200m from the crime scene,” he said.Onlookers and passersby sentthetruckdriver by ambulance to Stanley Medical College and Hospital, but doctors there pronounced him dead on arrival. The doctors informed police that the trucker, of Esayanur in Vellore district, died of a broken neck caused by blunt force trauma. The Madhavaram traffic investigation police registered a road accident and the Madhavaram Milk Colony police charged Mani and the minor with the death of the lorry driver, booking them under IPC Section 302 (murder).

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