Tirupur villagers spend sleepless nights over raining stones on their houses

COIMBATORE: As people of a village in Tirupur spend sleepless nights over pelting of stones on their houses, joint teams of police and revenue department have got into action by enhancing vigil in the neighbourhood.

More than 200 families in Ottapalayam village in Kangeyam were gripped in fear as stones continued to fall on their houses from 7 pm to 1 am over the last fortnight.

Kangayam Tahsildar Mayilswamy said people shouldn’t fear any evil spirits as it could be an act of mischief by some youth. “The CCTV’s were fixed and examined to trace out the culprits,” he said.

Curiously, several villagers took refuge at night in the local ‘Karupparayan temple’ fearing some evil force was haunting their village. “Even though police took up patrolling, the mysterious fall of stones on houses continued as usual. It has been 13 days since the stone falling started, and we have lost our sleep since then,” the villagers claimed.

The entire village has now been brought under the surveillance of CCTV and provided with better street light facilities. Also, drones were deployed by the police department to monitor the locality. Despite such heightened vigil, the villagers claimed that stones fell on their houses on Monday night as usual.

The stone fall has left gaping holes in the tile and asbestos roofing of several houses in the village. Many also claimed that due to erratic sleep at nights, they couldn’t carry out their routine during the day and their work pattern has been affected.