Cops rescue driver, cleaner kept captive by lorry owner

Mangalore, Feb 9: In a bizarre incident a lorry owner took to a rather gruesome method to punish his driver and cleaner for not obeying his orders. The owner locked up the driver in a tempo for two days and fatally tortured him, while fatally assaulted the cleaner, simply because the duo had taken the lorry to some place without seeking the owner's permission.

The driver is said to be in an unconscious state due to the assault while the cleaner is severely injured.

The workers were allegedly locked up in a tempo parked in the hollow block production unit of one Mr Prakash near Maravoor Railway crossing. The duo was even deprived of food and water. The local residents on hearing noise of somebody crying and brooding in pain, informed the police. When the cops rushed to spot they found the driver in a pathetic state, locked in the tempo.

Since the driver was not in a state to speak, the cops could not gather any detail from him, however, cleaner Srikant has given adequate information to the police. Accordingly cases have been booked against hollow brick production unit owner Prakash and six others.

Background

Shivaji was working as a driver in a lorry belonging to Lakshmeesh, resident of Mangalore. On February 4, Shivaji had been to Haleyangadi on duty to get load of soil. However, when Shivaji did not get the load of soil, he called the owner to inform about the same. Subsequently, Shivaji along with his relative and cleaner Srikanth decided to go to Murudeshwar. On their way back, the lorry collided with a car. Shivaji informed about the same to the owner, who instead directed Shivaji to stay where he was. On February 6, the owner Lakshmeesha came to Shivaji along with his friends Prakash, Ashiq, Kiran, Shishan and Ashwin. They settled the issue with the car owner and took Shivaji and Srikant to Maravoor along with the lorry.

There Shivaji and Srikant were tied up and dumped inside a tempo. The group assaulted them with iron rods and weapons. Two men named Ranjith and Lathif too assaulted the duo. When Srikanth lost his senses, the group decided to throw him out near Maravoor thinking that he was dead while they retained Shivaji and kept him as a captive for two days without food and water.

Bajpe police are investigating the case. They say that the owner must have suspected that the two were fleeing with the lorry. Hence he must have decided to punish them in this way.

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