‘Sorcerer’ sexually abuses two women, absconds

The Kancheepuram police are on the lookout for a 30-year-old fake sorcerer, who allegedly sexually assaulted two women when he was invited to their home to conduct a pooja for ‘warding of the evil troubling their family’. Feeling humiliated over this, the two women tried to commit suicide.

“We are looking for one Sridhar, a local sorcerer, who had tried to sexually assault two women at a house in village near Cheyyur off East Coast Road on Sunday evening in the guise of conducting a pooja,” the Cheyyur police disclosed on Monday.

The family of a bedridden 70-year-old woman decided to seek Sridhar’s help to ward off evil influence from the house. Though her two sons were not very keen about the idea, their wives, aged 34 and 24 years, were hoping that such a pooja would help the old woman to recover.

As planned, Sridhar visited the house on Sunday morning. He asked the family members to clean the house and also warned them that ‘Yamaraj’ (the god of death) was eyeing their family. He even warned that ‘Yamaraj’ may have set his eyes on the two sons. Before leaving, he gave the family a list of articles needed for Pooja, and added that the menfolk should not be present at the time of the pooja.

Returning in the evening, Sridhar got ready for the pooja by lighting lamps and incense sticks, and asked the men to leave. He then asked the two women to be seated without any clothes during the pooja. When they hesitated, he threatened to leave the house and warned them that death would soon visit their home.

Fearing for the lives of their husbands, the women followed what the sorcerer asked of them. He gave them theertham to drink after which they reportedly became unconscious. When they woke up, they found Sridhar had tried to sexually assault them. They called their husbands on mobile phone and asked them to rush home. But by the time they reached, Sridhar had escaped. Feeling humiliated over the turn of events, the two women tried to kill themselves, the police said quoting villagers.