Aurangabad, March 18: Five children were killed since December in a suspected case of child sacrifice in a village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district. The police has arrested four persons, including three women, to unravel the mystery.
The boys, aged between 4-12 years, belong to a family in Digras village in Maharashtra and were killed between December 2009-March 2010, the police said.
The killings came to light recently, after which the police registered a case of murder against six suspects and arrested four persons on Wednesday after conducting searches at their residence, police inspector M.A. Rauf said.
The police also recovered several materials like ash, black threads, unknown poisonous substances and some herbs during the search, he said. The four arrested persons have been remanded to police custody till March 22.
The police was able to apprehend the suspects after one of them, Vandana Mokle, allegedly tried to sacrifice one more child — Rishikesh Dalvi — early this month, at the behest of a local self-styled godman who is still absconding, Mr Rauf said.
Vandana, who is childless was also preparing to sacrifice 11 more children in ritualistic killings to fulfil her wish for a child, sources said.
The investigators got a breakthrough when Rishikesh complained of the same health problems which were detected in the five deceased children, who were allegedly fed poisonous herbs, before the ritual. The boy also showed effects of the same poison. — PTI
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Mayawati garland is noose for top babu
Amita Verma
Lucknow
March 18: UP CM Mayawati on Thursday removed Vijay Shankar Pandey from the post of additional cabinet secretary and principal secretary (information). He has been posted as principal secretary (health). Sources said Mr Pandey was removed for his failure to check the bad publicity the CM received over her currency garlands.
The CM is said to be deeply upset that news reports about the rally were sidelined while those about the currency garland gained prominence. Mr Pandey has been replaced with Mr Shailesh Krishna, who will now be the new principal information secretary and principal secretary to the CM. The CM also removed A. Upadhyay, director, information. A.S. Pandey, younger brother of V.S. Pandey, who was municipal commissioner in Ghazi-abad, has been shifted to Mathura as chief development officer.
More transfers are expected to take place later on Thursday night.