By IANS
Kolkata : The recovery of a body of an unidentified youth with his head smashed in a south Kolkata neighbourhood Thursday has brought back to the city memories of a serial killer known as Stoneman.
The Stoneman would choose his victims among pavement dwellers and bludgeon them to death with a stone at the dead of night in the late 1980s.
Police said the 30-year-old youth’s head was smashed with a 10 centimetre by 15 centimetre stone but it should not be immediately seen as the return of a Stoneman-like serial killer.
The incident took place at a lane connecting Dover Road and Ritchie Road in south Kolkata Thursday morning.
The style of murder resembled that of the Stoneman who stalked Kolkata streets and created mass phobia.
Though the killings by Stoneman stopped after a while in 1989, he could not be caught.
However, police have so far ruled out the possibility of a serial killer being on the loose.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Rajesh Subarna said: “The murder was not a cold blooded one as it used to be in the case of Stoneman attacks. Rather it is suspected to be a result of an altercation between the victim and the murderer, who lost his cool and attacked him on the forehead.”
Subarna said the murderer had not been traced yet.
The body had been sent to S.S.K.M. Hospital.
The youth was wearing cargo trousers, shirt and slippers at the time of his murder. Slum dwellers said that he was not one of the locals.
Serious injuries have been found on the chest and neck of the victim.