Rapist-killer Psycho Shankar slits throat with shaving blade in prison

BENGALURU: Serial rapistkiller Jai Shankar alias Psycho Shankar committed suicide by slitting his throat in his cell at Central Jail in the early hours of Tuesday.

The 38-year-old truck driver had hit the headlines in 2013 when he escaped from the high-security prison and was caught five days later. Paralyzed due to the injuries he suffered while fleeing, he was restricted to a wheelchair and put in solitary confinement.
“Shankar slit his throat with a shaving blade,” DCP (southeast) M B Boralingaiah said, adding the razor has since been recovered from his cell.Jail officials said he may have stolen the blade from the prison saloon. A magisterial inquiry is under way. Before the blade was found, officials surmised Shankar had used the sharp edge of a tumbler or plate to slit his throat.
Cops on night duty found Shankar lying in a pool of blood around 2.15am and shifted to him to the prison hospital. “Doctors nursed the wound and stitched it. They advised that Shankar be shifted to Victoria Hospital as he had lost blood and his windpipe had been damaged,” a prison official said. “Accordingly, we shifted him to the emergency ward of Victoria Hospital where he died around 5.10am.”
Shankar was paralyzed waist down due to worsening of the spinal injuries he had suffered while escaping from jail, officials said. He was an accused in 15 cases of rape, robbery, dacoity and murder — 12 in Tamil Nadu and three in Karnataka. He was convicted in three TN cases of robbery, dacoity and rape and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. He was lodged in the Bengaluru prison as trial was under way in three cases in Karnataka.