CHENNAI: Almost six months after the death of a person with learning difficulties at
Tondiarpet
, police on Wednesday arrested a fake godman from
Red Hills
in the connection.
The arrest was made after an investigation revealed that the person died due to an attack by the accused under the pretext of 'warding off evil spirits that had possessed him'. The deceased, Mehboob Basha, 37, of Tondiarpet, was a salesman by profession. As he was person with learning difficulties, his wife took him
Shankar, 49, of Red Hills, who runs a temple and claims to drive off evil spirits.
While Basha spent 10 days in the temple, he suddenly developed breathing issues and died on the way to the hospital.
While his wife did not lodge a complaint about her husband's death, the
Washermenpet
police registered a case of suspicious death and sent the body for postmortem. After
postmortem
results confirmed that the man died of wounds caused due to attack unleased by Shankar, police altered the sections to 304 (2) of IPC, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and Shankar was arrested.