Father beheads sleeping son 'as a sacrifice to gods'
A man has beheaded his 20-year-old sleeping son in southern India in what his family described as a sacrifice to Hindu gods.
Family members of Chandrasekhar Acharya say he beheaded his eldest son Shanmugamsundaram following occult practices.
Acharya thought the act would solve his financial problems, his family says.
Police in the southern Indian city of Madras say Acharya, 40, a goldsmith, committed the murder in a fit of rage rather than a sacrifice.
His wife, Shanti, and other members of the family were woken up from sleep by the boy's screams.
"When I came down I saw papa in a corner of the room with our brother's body on his lap and the severed head was lying near him," said Kumar, Acharya's second son.
"Of late, he had been reading books on occult practices ... He had stopped shaving and allowed his hair to become matted," Kumar said.
