CHENNAI: Tension prevailed at Koyambedu Market after loadmen went on the rampage, damaging several lorries, after two of their colleagues were injured in a mishap, early on Tuesday. Six persons were arrested in connection with the attack, in which a senior police official was injured.Trouble started around 5 am, when a lorry that was reversing inside the market knocked down 30-year-old G Chakravarthi, a loadman attached to ‘Periyar Vegetable Shop’. Chakravarti, who sustained injuries in his chest, was rushed to a nearby private hospital, while lorry driver B Singaraj (58), a native of Batlagundu in Dindigul, took to his heels.Around 6.30 am, the driver returned and started reversing the lorry again, when K Adimoolam (24), another loadman belonging to the same shop, was trapped between the vehicle and an oncoming truck. “His little finger was injured and he was also taken to the same hospital,” Koyambedu Traffic Investigation police told Express.Infuriated by the second consecutive incident, around 400 loadmen in the market went on the rampage, smashing the windscreens of parked lorries and assaulting the drivers. “Around 50 vehicles were damaged by the protesters,” the police said.A police team, led by Assistant Commissioner D Jude FLS Durai Pandian, later arrived at the spot. The loadmen then turned on the policemen and a flying iron hook hit the ACP, injuring him on his nose. He was taken to the hospital. The police then resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the mob.Commissioner of Police J K Tripathy told reporters that four cases had been registered and some loadmen taken into custody in connection with the incident. Koyambedu police identified the six arrested men as Selvaraj, Balamurugan, Sekar, Kandasamy, Veerasamy and Rathnam, all loadmen, mostly hailing from districts such as Perambalur and Dharmapuri. They were booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 341 (wrongful restraint), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to prevent a public servant from doing his duty) and 307 (attempt to murder), and produced before the Egmore court, which remanded them to judicial custody.Meanwhile, office-bearers of the Chennai Metropolitan Transporting Agents Association met the Police Commissioner and demanded protection to the lorry drivers and their vehicles.Association president V G Jayakumar and secretary A S Kandasamy told reporters that the rioters damaged around 150 vehicles not only belonging to Tamil Nadu, but also other states. “Some anti-social elements spread rumours that a load man was killed in the accident and that triggered the attacks,” they said.Claiming that several lorry drivers were beaten up by the protesters, they demanded police protection to them and their vehicles. Around 100 police personnel were deployed on the spot after the incident and the situation was under control, sources said.
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