Jilted lover beheads school girl in Attur

Salem: In a bizarrely shocking incident, a 26-year-old man, suspected to be a jilted lover, went on a murderous spree with a sickle, beheading a minor girl after inflicting several blows on her nape in front of her mother at their home on the outskirts of Attur in Salem district on Monday night.

Police said on Tuesday that Karthick alias Dineshkumar of Dhalavaipatti, working as driver of paddy-harvest tractor, took the 14-year-old minor girl studying in class eight and her mother, Chinnaponnu, totally unaware as he barged into their house when the elderly woman was sewing flowers.

After first attacking the girl's mother, Dineshkumar began brutally inflicting blows with his sickle on the little girl, killed her by severing her head and left the bleeding head on the road outside and tried to escape from the place, police said. Chinnaponnu, wife of Samivel, a daily wage worker, fell unconscious. The couple's first married daughter Aruljothi and her brother were not at home then.

Enraged by Dineshkumar’s macabre act, his wife Saradha and her relatives chased and nabbed him and handed over the accused to the Attur police station. On information, Attur DSP Mr Pon. Karthikumar rushed to the spot, retrieved the girl’s torso and head and sent it to the government hospital.

After preliminary investigations, police said they were probing into whether Dineshkumar's insane act was in retaliation to the minor girl spurning his sexual overtures, or whether he was mentally unsound to commit such a murder in such a heinous manner. A pall of gloom descended on Attur town on Tuesday as the tragedy sent shock-waves across the district.