CHENNAI: An ambulance driver killed his colleague, who had alerted their employer about his drinking habit while on duty, at Chengalpet on Sunday.
Police said the deceased, Vijayakumar, 33 of KK Nagar, was employed as a driver for the past 15 years under Saravanan, who ran a company that rented out ambulances. Vijayakumar used to stay in a room allotted to him by his employer at Periyar Nagar, along with fellow drivers Ajith, 30, Dharmadurai, 25, and Raja, 31, police said.
Last month, Vijayakumar had verbally complained to his employer that Ajith used to drive the ambulance under the influence of alcohol. Ajith was reprimanded by his employer and was warned against repeating this.
After the rebuke, Ajith used to pick up fights with Vijayakumar for his complaint. On Saturday night, Vijayakumar was asleep in his room along with the other drivers when a fight broke out between him and Ajith, police said.
At 1 am, the ambulance owner called up Ajith and asked him to deliver a freezer box at Nemili and return immediately.
Before leaving home, Ajith, in a fit of rage, dropped a grinding stone on Vijayakumar's head, who was asleep at the time of the attack. The other drivers Dharmadurai and Raja were asleep after getting drunk.
Ajith then went out to handover the freezer box and returned early on Sunday morning. He woke up his friends and claimed that he found Vijayakumar lying in a pool of blood, and suspected that some miscreants entered the house while he was away and killed Vijayakumar. He and his colleagues alerted his employer, who informed Chengalpet town police. Vijayakumar’s body was sent for a post mortem to Chengalpet government hospital. Ajith had deep injuries on his head.
When police interrogated Ajith, he feigned innocence at first, but later confessed to have committed the murder. Ajith was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
