Fear grips TN village after 45 human skulls found in graveyard
› ...I initially thought they were decayed pumpkins that had been thrown away. But, on a closer look, I discovered they were skulls
CHENNAI:FEAR has gripped the residents of Vakkanampatti, a tiny agrarian hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district, after a heap of human skulls were dumped in the village graveyard at the dead of night on Thursday.
The people woke up to the sight of at least 45 skulls, plus tender coconuts and incense sticks, in the graveyard along the road to Jolarpettai on Friday. Since then, the villagers have been fearful about some bad omen befalling them. “The skulls were arranged in such a manner that they looked like a garland,” said 58-year-old S Balasubramanian, a milk vendor who was the first to spot them. The graveyard, common to caste Hindus, Dalits and Christians, is just a stone’s throw from his hut in Kamarajar Nagar.
“When I started pedalling my cycle towards Jolarpettai town, I noticed something different in the graveyard. In the dim light, I initially thought they were decayed pumpkins that had been thrown away. But, on a closer look, I discovered they were skulls,” he told HT.
Hearing Balasubramanian’s screams, villagers rushed out to the graveyard. On spotting the skulls along with incense sticks and tender coconuts, many began to suspect witchcraft.
Police reached the site soon after and, after preliminary enquiries, buried the skulls in a corner of the graveyard.
But the people —the village has a population of 1000 — continue to be wary. They are afraid to venture out not only at night but also during the day. Most villagers have asked their girls and women to stay home.
“Our village is at the foot of the scenic Yelagiri hills, so someone doing black magic could have chosen it. We are scared to come out at night even to attend nature’s call. We have also stopped grazing our cattle during the day,” S Thaniyarasu, a villager said.
M Alphonse, who runs a grocery store said, “Kamarajar Nagar is not secluded as men and women working in Jolarpettai, Aambur and Vellore return late in the night. Sensing human activity, godmen who did witchcraft in some other area on new moon day last week could have dumped the skulls here.”
Concurring with him, local astrologer AS Ramesh said, “In the backward interiors of Tiruvannamalai and Vellore districts, the poor and illiterate still believe in black magic and occult practices. They flock to godmen who assure them prosperity... Since our place is on the fringe of Jolarpettai, the skulls could have been thrown here after performing the ritual somewhere else,” he said.
Appealing to the villagers to be calm, V Sathyamoorthy, tehsildar, Tirupattur taluk, said, “We are asking villagers not to be scared by this. We have been telling them that their fears are unfounded. Investigation is still on. We are hunting for the miscreants. They will be arrested soon,” said T Moorthy, sub-inspector of police, Kodiyur.
Asked why the skulls were not sent for laboratory tests, he said, “They were in a state of decay. They appeared to have been dug out from graveyards. They had traces of soil on them.”