Chennai: A 54-year-old construction worker from West Bengal was beaten to death with logs and iron rods in Nolambur on Saturday night after he refused to give cigarettes to a group of four, including a 17-year-old boy.Police arrested Vaseegaran, 20, Sabari, 19, Ajay, 18, and the minor on Sunday.The victim, Abhijeeth, was employed at a construction site in Nolambur. Around 10pm on Saturday, the suspects, allegedly in an inebriated state, spotted Abhijeeth standing outside the construction site, talking on his phone and smoking a cigarette.They approached him and asked him for cigarettes. When Abhijeeth refused and continued talking on the phone, an argument broke out. Police said the suspects assaulted him and, after he fell to the ground, picked up logs and iron rods lying nearby and attacked him.Hearing his screams, other workers at the site rushed out, and the assailants fled the scene. Abhijeeth was taken to a nearby private hospital, where doctors declared him dead.Police registered a murder case and sent the body to Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital for postmortem. Special teams traced the four on Sunday morning.Vaseegaran, Sabari and Ajay were remanded in judicial custody. The 17-year-old was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and sent to a govt observation home. Police said the three men were unemployed, while the 17-year-old had dropped out of school a few years ago.Anna Nagar deputy commissioner of police Arpita Rajput said police are holding further inquiries in the case.
