Busy on phone, businessman run over by train

CHENNAI: Glued to the cell phone, a businessman, who was crossing a railway track on his motorbike, was mowed down by a train at Ambattur on Monday. Victim K Gajendran (41) was a dealer of old oil tins and resided with his wife Lakshmi (32) and two young sons at E Block in Parthasarathy Nagar at Old Washermenpet. On Monday, around 3 pm, the businessman arrived at Gate 6 near the Ambattur railway station. The level-crossing gate was closed as the Chennai-Coimbatore Intercity Express, scheduled to leave Chennai Central at 2.30 pm, was expected to cross the station in 20 minutes. Unmindful of the closed gate, Gajendran bent under the bar, dragging along his bike with him, and began to cross the track. Since he was talking over his cell phone at the same time, he failed to notice the approaching Inter-City Express and was hit by the speeding train, Avadi Railway Police Sub-Inspector P Palaniandi told Express.He was thrown away in the impact, while his two-wheeler got entangled in the train’s wheel and was dragged to a distance of 1 km, the officer said. On hearing the commotion, the driver stopped the train near Ambattur bridge. The bike was disentangled and the train left the spot 30 minutes behind schedule. The Avadi Railway Police registered a case and sent Gajendran’s body to the Government General Hospital for autopsy.Huge Ephedrine Haul Customs officials at the airport here seized a huge quantity of ephedrine, a narcotic drug, from a courier, who attempted to smuggle the drug to Kuala Lumpur, on Monday evening.According to sources, Abdul Ejaz (28) of Triplicane was about to board the AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur at 5.30 pm when they received a tip off. Acting on it, they stopped him before his baggage was screened and searched it. Hidden in the lining of his bags were three packets containing the drug. While two contained 10 kg each, the third smaller packet had 5 kg. The total consignment of 25 kg is valued at `2 crore. Sources also said that Ejaz admitted to being a courier but maintained that he was not informed of the contents of the parcel. Based on the information, customs officials have begun hunting for the smugglers. Ejaz has been arrested and remanded in custody.