4 ARRESTED, COPS CLAIM ‘HUMAN SACRIFICE’ ANGLE IN GIRL’S KILLING

PATNA: An eight-year-old girl, whose mutilated body was found on the banks of the Ganga in Bihar’s Munger district on August 5, was killed allegedly as part of a human sacrifice ritual devised by a local mystic, police said on Monday.

The victim’s parents rejected the allegation and said that their daughter was raped and killed. An autopsy has ruled out rape. Police have arrested four people and charged them with kidnapping (Section 363 of the IPC) and murder (Section 302) .

Munger superintendent of police (SP) JJ Reddy told reporters that Parvez Alam, who claims to be a tantric, told local villager Dilip Kumar Choudhary that he needed to sacrifice a girl to avert the possibility of his pregnant wife’s miscarriage.

Choudhury, who was present at the press conference and is one of the four accused, said he had four children -- two sons and two daughters -- but wanted a fifth. He said he got in touch with Alam, a resident of Khagaria district.

Alam, Choudhury claimed, asked for the eye of 10-year-old boy or a girl so that he could prepare an amulet for the woman “consecrated” with the blood and eyes of a minor. “We committed the crime on the instigation of Alam,” said the main accused, Dilip to police.

The other two arrested accused people are Tanvir Alam and Dasrath Kumar who allegedly were accomplices of Alam and Choudhury, police

said.

The girl, a student of class 3, went missing on the evening of August 4 and her mutilated body was found on the banks of Ganga the next day.

According to police, Choudhary, Tanvir and Dasrath assembled near a brick kiln and caught the girl when she was returning home after delivering lunch to her father, who is a fisherman.

A complaint was lodged on August 4 evening when she did not reach home. Her body was found the next morning.

According to the police, the three dragged her inside the brick kiln and thrashed her before strangulating her and gouging her right eye.

Her body also bore injury marks, giving rise to initial suspicion that she was raped, police said.

The SP said police recovered bloodstained cloth and a pendant and sent it for forensic examination.

“The medical board report did not confirm rape,” said Reddy.

The police earlier detained 12 people in the case but all were freed after questioning. Alam was arrested from his home at Khagaria after Dilip Choudhary confessed to his crime.

The girl’s mother and father trashed the police theory, claiming their child was raped before being killed.

“Police have cooked up a story. We need justice,” the father said.

THE GIRL’S MOTHER AND FATHER TRASHED THE POLICE THEORY, CLAIMING THEIR CHILD WAS RAPED BEFORE BEING KILLED