Coimbatore: A 26-year-old man , who was working as a cleaner of a truck carrying vegetables from the Mettupalayam market here to Alappuzha in Kerala, died of injuries he suffered after miscreants pelted stones at the vehicle while it was passing through Kanjikode in the early hours of Monday.

The victim was identified as Mubarak Basha of Vadakkalur near Annur in Coimbatore. He began working as a cleaner only a few months ago, truck driver B Noorullah of Mettupalayam told TOI. “We were carrying vegetables from PMK Vegetables at Mettupalayam Vegetable Market to Kerala. When we reached Chadayankalai near Kanjikode around 1am, a 15-member gang pelted stones at the truck, breaking the windshield. A stone hit Mubarak Basha on his chest and he collapsed. I rushed him to the Palakkad Government Hospital. But doctors there declared him as brought dead,” he said.

The stones were hurled by the supporters of the ongoing lorry strike, Noorullah said. He lodged a complaint at Kasaba police station in Palakkad. The body was handed over to Mubarak Basha’s family after post mortem.

Meanwhile, Kerala police have registered a case against the gang under sections 147, 143, 148, 302 read with 149 of the Indian Penal Code and formed special teams to nab them.

