3 min readBhubaneswarJul 31, 2023 12:14 PM IST
First published on: Jul 31, 2023 at 12:14 PM IST
The Angul police in Odisha Sunday arrested a woman priest and her three sons in a suspected human sacrifice of a 14-year-old boy, whose limbless body was found hanging from a tree on Friday in a local forest.
The police identified the accused as Ritanjali Bagh of Tusur village under Kiakata police limit and her three sons —Soumyaranjan, Dibyaranjan and Jyotiranjan.
The victim, Sanchit Biswal of Subarnapur village, had been ailing for the past few months, the police said. When his health had not improved even after consulting several doctors, his mother took him to Ritanjali, known locally for performing certain rituals, on July 22.
According to the police, Ritanjali asked the boy and his mother to stay in separate rooms in her place of worship at night. Basanti could not find her son when she woke up the next day, and Ritanjali was also missing from the place, the police said.
Basanti then lodged a missing complaint at the Kiakata police station on July 24. The villagers spotted the victim’s mutilated body hanging from a tree in the Baruni jungle on the morning of July 28.
Claiming it a case of human sacrifice and accusing the police of taking no action, residents blocked the Kiakata-Athamallik road the same day. When the police reached the spot to clear the road, angry villagers torched the police vehicle. At least five platoons of police force were deployed in the Tusar and Kiakata areas as tension flared up in the locality.
Senior police officers said circumstantial evidence indicates it was a case of human sacrifice even though the police were yet to confirm.
Angul Superintendent of Police (SP) Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra said the accused were arrested based on the statement of the eyewitnesses and last seen theory under Indian evidence law.
“The modus operandi of the crime can only be confirmed after investigation. We are waiting for the forensic and post-mortem reports to ascertain the type of injuries, the opinion of doctors and the cause and time of the death. We can give a conclusive statement after analysing the reports,” said Mishra.
The accused have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 363 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, said police sources.
The Angul police in Odisha arrested a woman priest and her three sons in a suspected human sacrifice of a 14-year-old boy. (File photo/Representational) 
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