Chennai caught in psychopath scare

One more person died under mysterious circumstances in Chennai on Thursday as the police groped for clues regarding four similar deaths in the past two weeks amid a scare that a psychopath killer was on the prowl.
    
The body of 50-year old Basha, a security guard with a real estate firm, was found half-burnt with a few liquor bottles in the upmarket Ashok Nagar area near Vadapalani.
    
The incident took place barely 500 metres away from the Ashok Nagar police station.
    
Four others, including a ragpicker and a security guard, were found dead in similar fashion in the city over the past two weeks.
    
The

deaths sparked off fears of a psychopath stalking the upmarket neighbourhood. Last week the police claimed to have solved the mystery of the deaths with the arrest of Ekambaram, stated to be a mentally unstable person.
    
However, two deaths have been reported after his arrest, taking the overall toll of mysterious deaths to five.
    
So far, two persons were found dead with their heads smashed while the bodies of three others were found burnt while one was left injured.
    
Chennai police commissioner R Sekar had termed the killings as a challenge to the police, and vowed to put an end to such mysterious deaths in the neighbourhood.