Five men have been arrested on suspicion of conducting a human sacrifice in India. Nearly four years after the discovery of a decapitated corpse in a Hindu temple left officers baffled.
Shanti Shaw, 64, was murdered and beheaded with a machete in Guwahati, a city in India’s remote northeast, in 2019 after visiting a temple there.
After Shaw’s body was found in January, the case was reopened and several culprits were caught, with others still at large.
“The five conspired to murder the woman,” Guwahati police chief Diganta Barah told reporters Tuesday night. “A total of 12 individuals participated,”
Barah stated that 52-year-old Pradeep Pathak, the alleged perpetrator, orchestrated the murder as part of a religious ceremony commemorating the anniversary of his brother’s death.
“The accused believed that the sacrifice would appease the deceased’s soul,” he continued.
Pathak and four accomplices were arrested between March 25 and April 1, while the other seven are still at large.
Between 2014 and 2021, the National Crime Records Bureau of India registered 103 cases of human sacrifice in India.
Ritual murders are common in tribal and isolated areas that believe in witchcraft and the occult to satisfy deities.
Last year, two men were arrested in New Delhi for allegedly murdering a six-year-old child.
Two construction workers claimed authorities they killed the infant to please Shiva and become rich.
