Chennai: AIADMK leader’s banner on divider falls on woman, she’s run over by tanker

Subhasri was rushed to the nearby hospital where she was declared dead.

According to the police, the incident happened around 2.30 pm. The police said the victim was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. The body was sent to the Chrompet Government Hospital for postmortem.

St. Thomas Mount Traffic Investigation police has arrested the truck driver Manoj under section 279 (Rash driving or riding on a public way, 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others), 304 A (Causing death by negligence) of the IPC.

In 2017, the court passed an order banning hoarding of living persons, political parties alongside roads and pavement obstructing traffic and causing inconvenience to the pedestrians.

In 2017, the Madras High Court passed an order banning hoardings of living persons and political parties along roads and pavements as it obstructs traffic and is an inconvenience to pedestrians.

Friday’s accident triggered social media outrage as people slammed the government and the police department for allowing AIADMK cadres to erect illegal hoardings.

DMK chief M K Stalin took to Twitter and held the AIADMK government responsible for the woman’s death. “Government’s negligence, the lack of responsibility by officials, the inefficiency of police have caused the death of Subasri,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, activist Traffic Ramaswamy lodged a complaint with the Pallikaranai police station, urging the police to register a case against the police officer, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) official and AIADMK members who were responsible for erecting the banners along the road.

This isn’t the first time an incident like this has happened in Tamil Nadu. In 2017, Ragupathy Kandasamy, a 30-year-old techie, died in a similar manner in Coimbatore after his motorcycle rammed into a temporary wooden hoarding set up on the road by the AIADMK cadres for MGR centenary celebrations. Officials later removed the banners following the accident.