Hathras:

A class 2 student at a private school was “sacrificed” in a “black magic” ritual in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, police said today. Kritarth, 11, was allegedly killed at his school hostel earlier this week to bring “success” to the DL Public School at Rasgawan. 

Police said five people, including the owner of the school, Jasodhan Singh, his son, Dinesh Baghel, who was the director of the school, and three teachers, have been arrested in the case.

Police also said that the father of the school director believed in “black magic”. 

According to police sources, the accused wanted to kill the boy near a tubewell outside the school. However, as they were taking him out of the hostel, he started screaming, forcing them to strangle him to death.

During the investigation, items related to “black magic” were found near the school.

The accused had earlier tried to “sacrifice” another student, 9, on September 6 but had failed.

According to the complaint filed by the student’s father, Krishan Kushwaha, he received a call from the school administration on Monday informing him that his son had fallen ill.

When Mr Kushwaha reached the school, the authorities told him that the school director had taken his son to a hospital in his car, police said. He later recovered his son’s body from Baghel’s car.

Palghar:

Five persons were arrested in Thane and Palghar districts in Maharashtra for allegedly raping a 35-year-old woman repeatedly after promising to remove “vastu mistakes” in her house and other “evils spells” through black magic, a police official said on Sunday.

The five persons who have been arrested are the victim’s husband’s friends and they told her that some evil spell had been cast on her husband and that to regain peace she would have to be part of some rituals, the official said.

“The accused started frequenting the house of the victim from April 2018 and would conduct rituals when the victim was alone. They would give her a spiked drink calling it ‘panchamrit’ and would rape her,” he said.

The accused also took gold and money from her claiming it was for various rituals that would ensure peace and prosperity and a stable government job for her husband, he said.

“She was raped in 2019 in Yeoor forest in Thane, then in a mutt of the main accused in Kandivali, in a resort in Lonavala. They took Rs 2.10 lakh as well as gold from her,” he said.

After the woman from Talasari, a predominantly tribal area in the district, filed a complaint on September 11, a police team arrested Ravindra Bhate, Dileep Gaikwad, Gaurav Salvi, Mahendra Kumavat and Ganesh Kadam for the crime.

“We are finding out if the five accused have used the same modus operandi on others as well,” Talasari police station senior inspector Vijay Mutadak said.

Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil, in an official release, said the five have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape) 376(2)(n) (offence of committing rape repeatedly on the same woman) 420 (cheating).

The Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act 2013 has also been invoked, he said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)