Indian police have arrested five men for the murder of a 60-year-old victim of a ritual sacrifice, whose headless body was discovered in a Hindu temple four years ago.
Shanti Shaw, 64, was killed and beheaded with a machete in 2019 in a temple in the city of Guwahati in the state of Assam (northeast).
Police had made no progress in solving the case until the victim's body was finally identified last January, allowing a new investigation to be opened and suspects to be arrested.
“Soothing the soul of the deceased”
Five men were arrested between March 25 and April 1 and "
premeditated the murder of the woman
", Guwahati Police Commissioner Diganta Barah told reporters on Tuesday evening.
"
In total, 12 people participated
," he said.
The police are looking for their seven accomplices who are still at large.
One of the five suspects arrested, Pradeep Pathak, 52, had orchestrated the sacrifice of Mrs Shaw as part of a religious rite organized to commemorate the anniversary of the death of his brother, according to the commissioner.
“
The defendant apparently believed that this sacrifice would soothe the soul of the deceased
,” explained the policeman.
The National Bureau of Criminal Records recorded 103 cases of human sacrifice in the country between 2014 and 2021, usually committed during religious rituals.
They are more common in tribal and remote areas, where occult and witchcraft beliefs are more common.
In 2022, two men were arrested for the murder of a 6-year-old boy in New Delhi and explained to the police that they had given the child as an offering to Shiva in the hope that this Hindu deity would help them to recover. enrich.
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