Boy sacrificed to goddess

2006-10-30 22:20

Patna - Five people, including a confessed sorcerer, have been arrested for sacrificing an 11-year-old boy in eastern India, police said on Monday.

The body of the boy, Gulu Kumar, was found in a field on Sunday near the village of Shaguni, 15km east of Patna, the capital of India's Bihar state, said local superintendent of police Upendra Kumar Singh.

Five women have been arrested and have confessed to the killing, Singh said.

They said that the incident started when one of the women consulted a local sorceress how to save her critically ill two-month-old child. The witch, Manorma Devi, said he would only be cured if another male child was sacrificed to the Hindu goddess of death and destruction, Kali.

They kidnapped the boy while he was on his way home from school, giving him a drugged candy. They then took him to an altar dedicated to Kali and slit his throat, Singh said.

While animal sacrifices to Kali are still common, human sacrifices are extremely rare in India.

Singh said police had recovered the knife used in the crime and the women have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

- AP