A mysterious 'blade-man', who has caused terror in parts of the Bihar capital for five days by slashing the arms of young girls apparently with razor blades, resurfaced on Sunday to attack two more children a day after the police claimed to have arrested him.
Rukaiya Fatima, a 12-year-old student of Patna’s St. Joseph School, found her arms slashed and bleeding as she was on a road near her home in Khajekalan area to buy ice-cream.
“A thin young man in a black shirt riding a black motorcycle did something to my arm and immediately rode away fast,” she said.
Hours after this incident, the arms of a three-year-old boy, Rahul, were reportedly slashed with razor blades by a young man with similar description in Nauzar Ghat area.
Both Rukaiya and Rahul were hospitalised and fresh bouts of protests erupted against the 'blade-man' in their parts of the city.
Nearly 10 teenagers, eight of them teenage girls, have suffered sudden painful slashes on their arms in the Bihar capital’s Patna City area since April 18.
The Bihar police arrested Vidyasagar, 20, a B. Com student, on Saturday and claimed he was the notorious 'blade-man' who carried two razor blades with him and that the terror had thus been contained. Vidyasagar had on a black shirt and black jeans pants.
The fresh attacks on Sunday put Patna police in fresh quandary because at least five girls had reportedly identified Vidya Sagar when the cops brought them before him after his arrest.
The youth’s parents had protested the arrest of Vidyasagar, saying he was a law-abiding youth who would never attack anyone.
“His (Vidyasagar’s) face resembles the sketch we had released. Two blades and a photograph of a girl, perhaps his girlfriend, were found from his pockets. He is, however, yet to confess his crime,” said Patna superintendent of police (city) Kim after the arrest.
But after Sunday’s incidents, the Bihar police declined to speak on the matter.