December 15, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 4, 1428

HYDERABAD (India): Police in southern India are hunting two men accused of hacking off and stealing the right leg of a Hindu priest which he claimed had magical powers, they said on Friday.

Last week the two men allegedly visited 80-year-old priest Yanadi Kondaiah and got him drunk before chopping off his right leg with a sickle, local police official Pendakanti Dastgiri said.

The priest was discovered by villagers and rushed to hospital.

“Kondaiah told us that he ekes out livelihood by soothsaying in his native village” near the town of Tirupati in India’s Andhra Pradesh state, the police official said. “He claims his right leg possessed a rare mystic power which makes his predictions come true. The locals believe in his powers to cure spiritual and physical ailments,” added Dastagiri, a police sub-inspector.

The suspects, said to be in their early 20’s, apparently became interested in owning the leg after previous predictions given to them by Kondaiah turned out to be correct.—AFP