The black magic ritual sacrifice of a seven-year-old boy has sparked fury in India after it was revealed the child was killed to bring good fortune to a school.
The victim was found dead in his bed on Sunday night at the hostel where he lived in the city of Hathras, not far from the country’s famed Taj Mahal.
Police said Friday the owner of the school, Jasodhan Singh, his son, Dinesh Baghel, who was the director of the school, and three teachers, have been arrested in the case.
Instead of alerting authorities, cops said that Baghel hid the body in the trunk of his car.
Police officer Himanshu Mathur revealed that the boy was killed before a black magic ceremony conducted by Baghel’s father.
A seven-year-old boy from India was killed in a ritual sacrifice to bring good fortune to a school
Police said five people, including a teacher and his father, have been arrested in northern India over the killing
‘The boy was meant to be taken to an altar as part of a ritual, but got killed before the ceremony could be completed,’ he said.
Baghel and his father were arrested along with three other teachers at the school, Mathur added.
Mathur did not give further details on how the child had died and local media reports said the body was undergoing a post-mortem examination.
India’s National Crime Records Bureau lodged 103 cases of human sacrifice in the country between 2014 and 2021.
Ritual killings are usually conducted to appease deities and are more common in tribal and remote areas, where belief in witchcraft and the occult is widespread.
Last year police arrested five men for the 2019 murder of a 64-year-old woman who was killed and decapitated with a machete after visiting a temple in India’s remote northeast.
Police said the alleged ringleader had been conducting a religious rite to mark the anniversary of his brother’s death.
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