Thiruvananthapuram: A 36-year-old man was killed with an excavator near here when he objected to a group trying to illegally remove soil from his property, police said on Friday.
The deceased Sangeeth was a Gulf returneee.
The incident occurred past midnight on Thursday, the police said.
Sangeeth tried to stop the group of men from unauthorised removal of soil from his property when he was fatally attacked with the 'bucket' of the excavator, the police said.
The victim had been planning to grow vegetables on the land, they said.
The operator of the earth-mover has been taken into custody, they added.