People living in over 50 villages in Cuddalore had been spending sleepless nights for the last few weeks after an unidentified man brutally killed two persons and injured many during night attacks.
“We have strong suspicion that the man we detained could be behind the two murders and other attacks.
All the people were attacked when they were sleeping.
The man we picked up had no injuries on his body but had bloodstains on his veshti. We are sending the bloodstained clothes for DNA test as the man was not co-operating when ques tioned. We found that he is mentally unstable,” Mr Pradip Kumar, superintendent of police, Cuddalore district, told this newspaper on Sunday.
First murder was reported on May 9 in Kothavaheri village where an auto rickshaw driver Ravi (30) was the victim. A farmer named Balasubramanian (28) was killed two days later. The unidentified man reportedly attacked many other villagers also. All attacks took place when the victims were asleep.
According to the police, the Kannada speaking man was not ready to talk despite the authority getting an interpreter to talk to him. “He is mentally unstable. We don’t see any reason for him to be roaming around in the villages. Only a patrol team from the village caught him.
We are positive about his involvement in the attacks.
Right now he is a suspect.
Only after DNA tests we can confirm his involvement,” the official added.
After the reports about attacks by unidentified man started appearing, senior police officials had deployed more than 250 men in different villages along with local patrol teams.
When the police heaved a sigh of relief on Saturday night after catching the suspect, another attack was reported on Sunday morning triggering speculation that the actual culprit is still at large. However, a senior official claimed that the latest incident, in which an old lady was attacked, is not related to serial attacks.
“The old lady was attacked after she had a family problem,” the official said.