9-year-old boy in Hathras killed to ‘bring fame to school’, ‘ward off director’s problems’ in black magic ritual: police

Kumar also said they have also found a rope, religious pictures, and a key from a room in a school premises.

Kumar said that at around 12 am on September 22, when students of the school were sleeping, school teacher Solanki picked up the child from his bed and brought him outside. “They had planned to sacrifice him in a designated room but he woke up in between and started crying. Solanki then covered his mouth and brought him to the ground floor of the hostel and strangled him,” he said.

Kumar said Veerpal and Laxman Singh stood there to supervise them. According to the officer, Jasodhan Singh had already informed his son Dinesh Baghel about the ritual and he was ready to disperse the body. Later, Baghel was caught in the process.

The boy’s father lodged the First Information Report (FIR) at Sahpau police station on September 23 blaming the school director for the death of his son. “Baghel called us in the morning on September 23 saying my son was not feeling well and he was rushing him to the local hospital for immediate medical help. We rushed to the hostel but did find Baghel and our son there. We contacted Baghel who told us that he was taking my son to Agra as his condition had deteriorated. We got suspicious and informed the area police. We also followed Baghel after asking him to wait. We traced Baghel and found that my son was lying dead in his car,” said the father.

The police detained Dinesh Baghel on the same day but could not find the motive behind the boy’s murder.

“We began our investigation after detaining Baghel and talked to several people close to him and his family in the Rasgava village. We learnt that his father Jasodhan Singh believes in witchcraft and had advised his son to sacrifice a minor boy two months ago but the plan could not be materialised. We interrogated the father and he revealed the truth behind the heinous crime,” said Kumar.

The police then interrogated Baghel again and he told them that on the advice of his father, he asked Ram Prakash Solanki to pick up the minor from his hostel room on the night of September 22.

“Baghel initially had told us that the child was unwell and so he first took him to a hospital in Sadabad and then to Agra, where the doctors declared him dead and so he was bringing him back to Rasgawan in Hathras,” said a police officer.

However, the post-mortem examination confirmed that the boy was strangled and the bones of his neck were broken.