CHENNAI : Three days after a Muslim priest was burnt to death by an inflammatory liquid thrown on him, the police said they had found out that a woman believed to be intellectually challenged had committed the crime. The freak incident took place on Monday night when Syed Fazruddin, 60, who used to distribute talismans to people and perform prayers, was set on fire by a burqa-clad woman who threw some inflammable liquid on him. Fazruddin died a few hours later of severe burn injuries.
The Triplicane police, which have registered a case, found out on Thursday from the CCTV footage and enquiries that the woman was daughter of a wealthy jewellery shop-owner in the city. “When we visited her house in Ice House, her husband and father informed us that she had already been admitted in the Institute of Mental Health at Kilpauk, as she was intellectually disabled,” said a police officer.
The family members said that she used to visit Fazruddin to get his blessings in the hope that his prayers would cure her. Police are waiting for reports from the doctors to ascertain whether the woman is really intellectually challenged and they are also waiting for forensic test reports on the liquid used by the woman.