A 45-year-old soothsayer was hacked to death in Choolai on Thursday morning.
According to the police, Janakiraman alias Pachi Samigal lived on C.K.P. Koil Street in Choolai with his wife Indira and their two children. According to the police, he practised soothsaying and sorcery.
Janakiraman’s family said he would often visit a tea shop on the adjacent street in the morning hours. On Thursday, around 7 a.m., when he was walking towards the junction a few feet away from his house, a gang of five attacked him with sharp weapons. “Hearing his cries, we rushed to the spot and found him barely alive. His jewellery was stuck inside the cuts. We rushed him to the government general hospital, but he died on the way. The last thing he asked was for some water,” said Anand, his nephew.
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Three of the suspects — Appu, Sarathy and Veera — surrendered in the Saidapet court on Thursday. The police are hunting for the other two persons.
Neighbours described him as a compassionate person. “He always used to get tea and food for people who gathered near the tea shop and only after this he returned home. He always used to help others. We do not understand who would have wanted to murder him,” said a resident of the locality.
He has been living in the locality for the past seven years. “He started soothsaying 18 years back after he went to a temple in Melmalayanur,” said a resident.
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The police said the suspects were residents of the same street. “He was into sorcery and that was suspected to be the reason behind two persons of nearby streets, including a college student, committing suicide,” said a police officer.
The police said Janakiraman’s practices had frightened the residents.