CHENNAI: By a quirk of fate, a 70-year-old man who wanted to kill a rooster as part of a ritual sacrifice to ward off evil spirits from a newly-built home fell to death from the third floor of the building along with the rooster. The bird landed safely on his body without injuries.
According to police sources, Rajendiran, a dailywage labourer who doubled up as a pujari, stepped into an open lift shaft on the third floor of the underconstruction building in Pallavaram early on Thursday when evil—and the rooster—got the better of him.
“Rajendiran worked as a mason and used to oversee construction work. He would also perform rituals before housewarming ceremonies,” a senior police officer said. T Lokesh, 48, of Pozhichalur in Pallavaram, had planned a housewarming ceremony at his three-storey apartment on Friday.
“It is common to perform housewarming ceremony when work is only 80% complete and later complete the construction work before moving in,” the officer said.
Man did not contact family for several years
“Lokesh had allotted a space for erecting a lift and left it open,” the officer said. Asked by Lokesh to perform the rooster sacrifice, Rajendiran arrived at the house around 4.30am on Thursday. The man then took the stairs to the top floor of the building alone.
“A few minutes later, Rajendiran stepped into the open lift shaft and came crashing to the ground. The rooster that was struggling to fly landed on him,” the police officer said. He was rushed to the nearby hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
After preliminary investigation, police said Rajendiran may have planned to slit the rooster’s neck in the open spot. Since the house was filled with cement and wires, and may have slipped and fell into it. Rajendiran did not have any contact with his family for the past several years and police were not able to identify his native place.