Namakkal: In a bizarre instance of “rough and ready justice”, an angry mob stoned an assailant to death after he gruesomely killed an old woman in Gurusamypalayam area in Namakkal district late on Friday. At least, 12 members of the public also suffered burn injuries as the fleeing killer threw acid at the enraged crowd before he was subdued by the mob.
Police said Samuel, second husband of Vijayalakshmi, had come to threaten the elderly woman, Dhanammal’s house, where the three daughters of Vijayalakshmi by her first marriage were staying. Samuel allegedly demanded that one of the daughters should go with him to her mother’s place in Dharmapuri.
Dhanammal, fearing that he was trying to force one of her granddaughters into prostitution, refused to send any of them with Samuel. This angered Samuel, said to be armed with a knife and a bottle containing acid, allegedly cut off the neck of the elderly woman, who died on the spot on Friday night.
Seeing this outrage, members of the public attacked Samuel with sharp stones, even as he tried to escape by throwing acid on people, who opposed his dreaded act and injured 12 of them in the process. Meanwhile, Samuel was encircled by others, who stoned him and he dropped dead with grave head injury.
As the news of people taking law into their own hands spread, Namakkal SP, Mr Arularasu, rushed to the spot with a posse of special police battalion and brought the situation under control. Even as the bodies of the elderly woman and of Samuel were sent for post-mortem, a pall of gloom descended on the village. Investigations are underway.
