A five-year old girl was hacked to death by her neighbors as part of an occult ritual requiring human sacrifice. The suspects, a woman and her daughter residing in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, had undertaken the gruesome crime to unearth buried treasure.
According to the The Times of India, the incident came to light on Tuesday when police at Kotwali police station were informed of the missing girl when her mother could not locate her. Authorities questioned the minor son of the accused who told them that his mother and sister had hacked the young girl and threw her body in a nearby riverbed.
Kotwali inspector Bhaskar Mishra said that after receiving information about the case, police recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem examination. Serious injury marks were found on the victim's neck.
In a confession from the accused who both reside in the Chamraudi village, the women told police that they killed the child on the advice of a sorcerer. They claimed being under the influence of a sorcerer who told them they would find buried treasure if they sacrificed a child as part of the ritual.
Heeding to the sorcerer’s instructions, the woman along with her daughter decided to push through with performing the ritual. The mother and daughter team chose their neighbor’s 5-year-old daughter as their sacrificial lamb and proceeded with their heinous intentions. They abducted the child and slit open the young girl's throat which resulted in her death.
Sources said the victim’s father had just passed away 10 days prior after suffering a prolonged illness.
Inspector Baskar Misrah said that further investigation will be conducted based on the complaint and autopsy report. "We have detained the accused woman, her daughter and husband for questioning. We are investigating the incident from other angles too," the inspector added.
Meanwhile, the police have launched a search for the sorcerer to get answers for her ill-advice to the accused in finding buried treasure at the cost of sacrificing a young child’s life.
