5 held in 2019 human sacrifice case at Kamakhya temple: Assam police
Five people have been arrested by Assam police over a human sacrifice incident that took place near Guwahati's Kamakhya Temple in 2019. A 64-year-old woman, Shanti Shaw, was allegedly beheaded during the Ambubachi Mela. Police could not identify the culprits due to a lack of evidence at the time, but a recent investigation led to the arrest of three sadhus and two others. The investigation is ongoing as several accused are still absconding. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 103 cases of human sacrifice have been lodged in India between 2014 and 2021.
Assam police have arrested five persons over a “human sacrifice incident” which took place near Guwahati’s Kamakhya Temple in 2019, officials said.
On June 19, 2019, Shanti Shaw, 64, a resident of West Bengal’s Hooghly district was allegedly beheaded near the temple during Ambubachi Mela.
Guwahati police commissioner Diganta Barah on Tuesday said that the beheaded body of a woman was found at the staircase of the Joy Durga Mandir near Kamakhya Temple on June 19, 2019 following which a suo moto case was registered at Jalukbari police station police could not identify the culprits due to lack of evidence.
Kamakhya Temple is a Shakti Peeth and is one of the oldest and most revered centers of Tantrik practices. The Ambubachi mela is held in the temple every year.
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Police said that Shanti travelled to Assam from West Bengal with a sadhu and two other women to attend the Ambubachi Mela but she went missing from there. Knowing that her mother her gone missing, her son Suresh Shaw came to Assam on July 28, 2019 and found that that a beheaded dead body was discovered in Guwahati.
“He identified the dead body on the basis of clothes along with other ornaments and some tattoos on her body. Apart from identification no further clue or evidence could be gathered during the investigation” Borah said.
Barah said that a special team was formed recently to investigate the 2019 case who analysed technical evidence collected earlier and based on the clues gathered, they reached to West Bengal’s Cooch Behar and carried out a search in the house of one Kailash Barman. During the raid, the commissioner said that the team recovered materials such as a mobile handset and materials belonging to the victim such as clothes, ID proof (Aadhar card).
Further investigation revealed that those belongings were left there in a bag by one Baba Ji named Mata Prasad Pandey, a resident of Madhya Pradesh.
Barman told police that Pandey first visited their village around eight years back and since then, he regulargy visits during June-July every year. In 2019, Pandey visited his house and left those belongings in a bag which he would collect later, Barman said, according to the police.
As the investigation progressed, a special team of police arrested Pandey from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh on March 25 this year. Barah said that upon interrogation, Pandey revealed that the puja was performed at the Bhootnath temple on the intervening night of June 18 and 19 in which 12 persons took part that year including the victim.
The puja was sponsored by one Pradeep Pathak alias Dinesh, a resident of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh for his younger brother, who was a Naga sadhu and had died 11 years ago on the same day. He paid ₹10,000 each who took part in this. Pathak was subsequently arrested from his residence in Mathura on April 1, 2023.
The investigation further led to the arrest of three more sadhus identified as Suresh Paswan (56), Kanu Acharjee or Kanu Tantrik (62), Bhaiyaram Maoriya or Raju Baba (60).
Barah said that 10 to 12 people, including two babas who are yet to be traced.
“After offering the puja at Bhootnath at midnight, everyone went to Kamakhya first and later went to the cremation ground near Bagala Mandir. They took the victim to Joy Durga Mandir, performed a puja and consumed alcohol and meat. The victim had no idea that the puja was being done to sacrifice her later and she was made to drink and eat as well,” said the commissioner.
“Raju Baba, who had a blanket on his back, spread it on the steps of the stairway of Joy Durga Mandirand and asked the woman to lie down. They then held her head, hands and legs and before she could make a move to escape, one of them took out a machete and beheaded her in the name of human sacrifice,” Barah added.
He body and the blanket were left on the floor while the head was packed into a polyethene bag which the accused claimed to have thrown into the Brahmaputra river.
Police said that they are investigating the case further as few accused are still absconding. In several areas in Assam and other parts of the country, ritual killings are still happening and according to the local people, these are usually conducted to appease deities.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) have lodged 103 cases of human sacrifice in the country between 2014 and 2021 and several persons were arrested in these connection.