Police have arrested a 35-year-old woman in connection with the alleged ritual killing of her teenage daughter in Kusumbha village along with an occult practitioner and another man, an officer said.
The occult practitioner reportedly told the mother that a “virgin girl” should be sacrificed to “cure” her son of all ailments, according to PTI.
What happened?
Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police Anjani Anjan said the mother often visited a local “tantrik” for treatment of her youngest son, who suffers from mental and physical health problems. He said: “The occult practitioner told the mother that they needed to sacrifice a virgin girl to cure the son of all ailments.
The officer said that on March 24, Ashtami night, when the village was celebrating Ram Navami and witnessing the Mangla Julus procession, the girl was allegedly strangled at Shanti Devi’s house by her mother and Bhim Ram.
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The police alleged that the occultist then performed other acts as part of the ritual while Bhim Ram hit the girl on the head to draw blood. After the killing, the accused buried the body in the garden, the police officer said.
Anjani Anjan added that the three later tried to mislead investigators by claiming rape, but this was not supported by post-mortem and forensic findings.
Bhim Ram is also accused of allegedly murdering his sister-in-law and another person, Anjani Anjan said.
Anjan and DIG Anjani Jha confirmed the arrest during a press conference on Wednesday night. According to the police, among those arrested are the girl’s mother Reshmi Devi, 55-year-old Shanti Devi, an alleged occultist, and 40-year-old Bhim Ram, all residents of the same village, according to PTI.
The Jharkhand High Court on Monday took suo motu cognizance of the alleged rape and murder of a girl in Bishnugarh, Hazaribagh and issued a notice to the state administration and the director general of police.
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A division bench comprising Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Sanjay Prasad took cognizance of the incident based on media reports. The girl’s mother had earlier claimed that her daughter was abducted and her body was later found in a field in the village on March 25.
Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a 12-hour bandh in Hazaribagh on Monday to protest the killings.
The woman claims that the husband forced naked occult rituals
Meanwhile, in Kanpur, a 25-year-old woman alleged that her husband and in-laws forced her to participate in occult rituals in a humiliating manner while subjecting her to sexual abuse and prolonged physical and mental harassment, police said on Wednesday.
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According to the FIR, the woman, a resident of Sachendi, married Kautuk Mishra, a jeweler from Pandu Nagar, on March 6, 2024.
Her family claimed that she provided a substantial dowry at the time of her marriage, including an SUV and gold and silver ornaments. However, the woman claimed that her in-laws continued to demand additional dowry, including a house, one kilogram of gold and cash.
In her complaint, she stated that she was repeatedly forced to participate in nocturnal occult rituals against her will, sometimes in a state of undress. She claimed that on one occasion her husband and father-in-law forcibly stripped her to participate in such rituals.
She further alleged that she was physically assaulted and psychologically harassed whenever she resisted.
The woman also accused her father-in-law of sexual abuse, claiming she was locked in a room with him and threatened with “tantra-mantra” if she refused to cooperate.
