NEW DELHI: Five people were arrested on suspicion of beheading a woman four years ago as a human sacrifice at one of India’s fabled temples to Goddess Durga in Assam, police said on Tuesday.
Guwahati Police Commissioner Diganta Bora said the beheaded body of a woman was found covered with a blanket on the staircase of the Joy Durga Mandir in the precincts of the Kamakhya Temple on June 19, 2019, hours after she was killed.
A suo motu case was registered at Jalukbari police station and investigation was launched but was delayed due to lack of clues.
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 usually in regions where belief in witchcraft and occult is widespread.
Shanti Shaw, 64, was killed and decapitated with a machete after visiting the temple in Guwahati. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party rules the remote northeastern region. A robust campaign against blind faith and superstition in southern India has been viciously opposed by groups loyal to Hindutva, and vocal campaigners have been killed.
Reports said police made no progress in the case until Ms Shaw’s body was finally identified in January, sparking a renewed investigation that tracked down several culprits.
“The five planned the killing of the woman,” the commissioner said. “A total of 12 people took part.”
Mr Bora said the alleged ringleader, Pradeep Pathak, 52, had orchestrated the killing as part of a religious rite to mark the anniversary of his brother’s death.
“The accused apparently believed that the sacrifice would appease the soul of the deceased,” he added.
Pathak and four others were picked up between March 25 and April 1, with police still hunting for their seven accomplices.
Last year, two men were arrested for allegedly killing a six-year-old boy in New Delhi. The culprits reportedly told police they murdered the child as an offering to the Hindu god Shiva to get rich.
Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2023