A jobless Indian devotee was admitted to hospital after he cut off his tongue and offered it to a Hindu goddess, police said on Wednesday.

Doctors stitched the wound but said the man, identified as Suresh Kumar, 24, may not be able to speak again.

The incident took place on Tuesday evening when Kumar visited a temple dedicated to Hindu goddess Kali on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir.

Inside the temple, he cut his tongue off with a knife and gave it to the priest to offer it to the deity. He was immediately rushed to hospital.

“I am a true disciple of the goddess and it is my firm belief which has given me the strength to offer my tongue to her,” he wrote on a piece of paper when reporters visited him in hospital.

(Khaleej Times)