HYDERABAD: For the past two weeks, people and police in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh have been spending sleepless nights. People, particularly women, are scared to move on the busy streets alone. The reason is that a miscreant who is now popularly referred as ‘Injection Psycho’ is on a spree of attacking people with syringes containing unidentified liquid.
Except for a sketch of the assailant prepared from the description given by the victims, the police are clueless about the miscreant and also doubt whether it is a single psycho or a group of persons on the prowl to spread panic among people.
Doctors are yet to identify the chemical that is injected by the attacker as he does not leave behind the empty syringe. He arrives on a motorcycle, injects the substance into an unsuspecting victim, mostly girls, and escapes even before the victim realises what has happened.
Though about 23 persons claimed to have been attacked by the psycho since August 22, the police claimed that only 11 persons were attacked. It all started when a miscreant attacked Amdukuri Mercy, a 12-year-girl from Mypa village of Palakoderu mandal. She was on her way to school at Yandagandi on her bicycle when an unknown youth, who covered his face with a handkerchief, stopped her and attacked her with syringe. “He asked me in which class I was studying. While I was answering, he took out the syringe and stuck it on my hand. Within no time, I was unconscious,” said the victim. Minutes later, similar incident was reported at Yandagandi.
While the police are shocked at these incidents, the doctors were clueless about the treatment as they had no information about the type of drug injected to the victims. Amidst wide spread panic, the police could not lay their hands on any information so far.
“Our investigations revealed that some people panicked due to the reports in the media and when some person accidentally went past him or her, they felt that they were pricked by an injection and rushed to the police. But only 11 were genuine cases and the rest of them were all imaginations by the complainants,” said Bhaskar Bhushan, superintendent of police of West Godavari district.
Further, the police have instructed all pharmacists in West Godavari district not to sell syringes and needles unless prescribed by a registered medical practitioner. They are also collecting data of former employees in hospitals, pharmacies and diagnostic laboratories in a bid to zero-in on the attacker.
on The Prowl
■ A reward of Rs 1 lakh has been announced to those who will provide information about the attacker
■ Police have formed 45 special teams launching a manhunt for the attacker
■ Around 25 check-posts have also been set up
■ Police also released two sketches of the accused