A Tamil man has drowned after being chased by police in Mullaitivu.
29-year-old Maheswaran Ramakrishnan and two others were chased by police who had tried to apprehend the three for allegedly drinking alcohol next to a tank (kulam) in Udaiyarkattu.
When the chase reached the water, one of the men swam across to the other bank and escaped the police. Another surrendered without attempting to swim across the bank.
The third, Mr Ramakrishnan, drowned while attempting to cross the tank.
On realising that Mr Ramakrishnan had submerged, police left the the surrendered individual to look for him.
The surrendered individual gathered locals who engaged in a search for Mr Ramakrishnan.
Mr Ramakrishnan reportedly drowned around 2pm on Saturday and locals recovered his body around four hours later.
Police only arrived at the scene a further two hours later and there were confrontations between locals and police for causing the death of the man and failing to rescue him when drowning.
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