The holy town of Shirdi is in the grip of unspeakable fear. A psychopath is on the prowl. He spots homeless people and smashes in their heads, putting them to permanent sleep. On Monday, three bodies with heads smashed were found within a radius of 2km of the Sai Baba temple. The killings have taken the toll in the last month to six. Two others survived with injuries without a clue as to who gave them the injuries.
The police suspect the killings are the handiwork of a serial killer. There’s a fixed pattern to the killings. All the murdered are homeless beggars. All have been hit on the head. In every case the weapon was a stone. All the bodies were left covered with a bed sheet. Next to all the bodies, there was a stone — the killer’s gory mark, his signature! Curiously, all the victims were in the age group of 50-55, police said.
Of the three bodies found on Monday, one was found near Hotel Kalasai on the Ahmednagar-Manmad Road. The other was lying next to the government guest house. The third was discovered close to the Dnyaneshwar Mandir. “A person with head injuries was also found on the railway platform. He has been admitted to hospital,” said inspector Datta Pawar of the Shirdi police station.
Towards the end of June, the body of a man with head injuries was found in a well near the railway station in Shirdi. Then, it seemed like a one-off case. But what followed since then has shocked and scared the people of Shirdi. On July 8, two bodies - that of a man and a woman - were found lying on a platform of the Shirdi railway station. Both had severe head wounds. Both were hit with a stone. The same day, another person was found injured with blood gushing from his head.
Then the body of a man bleeding from the ears and nose was found in the vicinity. The police, however, are not sure if this murder fits the pattern of the serial killings. There was no stone placed next to his body!
CCTV footage from the Shirdi railway station took the police to Kalyan. On July 11, the police picked up a man from the Kalyan railway station. He was, however, released after inquiries. Two other persons were also interrogated. They too were let off after the police failed to establish them to the killings.
Incidentally, the murders in Shirdi show an uncanny similarity to a slew of killings in Kolhapur and Latur. Nine murders were reported in four months in Kolhapur. It’s a story unfolding. Fear the stone.
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