Seven men were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly stoning and beating a homeless man to death following an altercation in Keralam’s Palakkad district, police said.
The body of the unidentified man, believed to be in his 40s, was recovered by the police near the Moolathara dam in Chittur on Sunday, an officer from the Meenakshipuram police station said.
Police identified the seven suspects as Kathireshan, Suryaprakash, Manikandan, Karthik, Prasanth, Sanjay and Naveen. They were produced before a court in Palakkad on Wednesday and remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody.
Police said the deceased was an unemployed vagabond who was suspected to be from Tamil Nadu. Chittur, where the incident was reported, borders Tamil Nadu.
“It seems the victim lay down in front of the house of the main accused Kathireshan one day. He was warned not to do so by the accused. But it seems he repeated it and there was an altercation. On the day of the incident, the accused, all in an inebriated condition, picked up an argument with the victim and ended up throwing stones at him and beating him to death with sticks,” the police officer told HT.
He said the autopsy report mentioned severe assault, bleeding and multiple internal injuries.
All seven accused have been charged with murder, he added.