An eight-year-old girl was reportedly killed as part of a human sacrifice ritual organised by a local mystic in India’s Bihar, reported the Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
The victim was a third-grade student who went missing on August 4. Her mutilated body was found on the banks of Ganga the next day.
The police have arrested four people and charged them with kidnapping and murder under the Indian Penal Code.
Superintendent JJ Reddy informed reporters that self-proclaimed mystic Parvez Alam, a resident of the Khagaria district, had told Dilip Kumar Choudhary that he needed to sacrifice a girl so that his pregnant wife would not miscarry.
Choudhary further informed that he had four children and wanted a fifth. He got in touch with Alam, who had asked him to bring the eye of a 10-year-old boy or girl so he could prepare an amulet.
Choudhary told police that they committed the crime on the instigation of Alam.
The other two suspects include Tanvir Alam and Dasrath Kumar who allegedly were accomplices of Alam and Choudhury, the police reported.
Initial police reports suggest that Choudhary, Tanvir and Dasrath had kidnapped the girl when she was returning home from delivering lunch to her father, who is a fisherman.
The three men dragged the girl inside the brick kiln, strangled her and gouged out her right eye. The girl’s body was covered in injury marks, giving rise to the initial suspicion of rape.
The girl’s bloodstained cloth and pendant were sent for forensic examination but the medical board denied the possibility of rape, informed SP Reddy.
Initially, the police detained 12 people but all were freed after questioning. Alam was arrested from his home after Choudhary confessed to the crime.
The girl’s mother and father, however, stated that the police have “cooked” up a story. They said that their daughter was raped before being murdered.
