Three people have been arrested for allegedly killing a 10-year-old boy here after an occultist asked them to perform a "human sacrifice", police said on Sunday.
Superintendent of Police Prashant Verma said Parsa village-resident Krishna Verma's son Vivek had gone missing on Thursday night.
On the same night, the child's body with his throat slit was found in the field, he said.
During probe, police found that the deceased child's cousin Anoop had two-and-half year-old son who was mentally-challenged and also used to remain sick. When treatment did not yield positive results, Anoop approached an occultist near his village, police said.
The occultist instigated Anoop to perform human sacrifice following which he along with Vivek's uncle Chintaram killed the child using a spade, police said.
The three accused --- Anoop, Chintaram and the occultist -- were arrested on Saturday, police said.
The SP on Sunday said a case of murder has been registered against the accused.