A 13-year-old girl was killed by her mother and a tantrik in a sacrificial ritual in Kusumbha village, along with an occult practitioner and a man, an officer said. The police have arrested the victim's mother, Reshmi Devi; Shanti Devi (55), an occultist; along with Bhim Ram. All of them belonged to the same village.
According to the police, Reshmi Devi visited the occult practitioner in her village for the treatment of her youngest son. The fraudster told Devi to sacrifice a virgin girl to treat her son.
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Well-Planned Murder Portrayed As Rape
On March 24, on the occasion of Ashtami, the minor was strangled to death at Shanti's Devi's house. She was killed by her mother and Bhim Ram.
The investigation revealed that the occultist inserted a wooden stick into the girl's private parts, while Bhim Ram hit her head as part of the ritual. After killing the minor, they buried her body in a garden.
According to Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police Anjani Anjan, they tried to portray the killing as a rape; however, the postmortem revealed the truth.
Additionally, Bhim Ram also faces allegations of murdering his sister-in-law and another individual, Anjan added.
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The Jharkhand High Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the alleged rape and murder of the girl in Bishnugarh in Hazaribagh and served a notice to the state administration and the director general of police.
Based on media reports, a division bench consisting of Justices Sanjay Prasad and Sujit Narayan Prasad noted the event. The girl's mother had previously claimed that her daughter had been kidnapped; on March 25, her body was discovered in a local field.
The opposition BJP staged a 12-hour bandh in Hazaribagh on Monday to protest against the killing.