School manager, 4 others sacrifice boy in UP for growth, prosperity: Police
Investigators cited the post-mortem report and said it showed the boy was strangulated even as the school authorities initially claimed that the boy died due to illness
The manager of a school in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras allegedly sacrificed an 11-year-old Class 2 student with the help of his father and three others as he believed the sacrifice would help the educational institute’s growth and bring his family prosperity, investigators said on Friday.
Additional police superintendent Ashok Kumar Singh said that the school manager Dinesh Baghel, his father Jasodan Singh, principal Laxman Singh, and teachers Ram Prakash Solanki and Veerpal have been arrested.
Investigators cited the post-mortem report and said it showed the boy was strangulated even as the school authorities initially claimed that the boy died due to illness. They cited the probe and said Jasodan Singh and Baghel practised occult and eventually confessed to sacrificing the boy.
Investigators said the boy, who lived in the school hostel, was asleep when Solanki allegedly picked him up and took him to a forest for sacrifice. Veerpal and Laxman Singh allegedly kept a watch to ensure the sacrifice was carried out as the child cried for help.
The accused kept the boy’s body in Baghel’s car after strangulating him and were looking for a place to dump it. The boy’s father was told that his son was unwell and had been taken to a doctor. The boy’s family somehow tracked Baghel’s car at Sadabad and recovered the dead body of the boy on September 23.
Investigators said the boy was brutally killed and that his collarbone was broken. The accused strangulated him after gagging him. The boy’s hair was cut from one side as part of a sacrifice ritual.
Police said the five accused have been booked for murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s Section 103 (1). Additional police superintendent Ashok Kumar Singh told news agency PTI that Solanki, Baghel, and Jasodhan Singh abducted the boy on September 23 from the school’s hostel. “Jasodhan Singh believes in tantra practice and asked his son to sacrifice a child for the prosperity of school and his family,” he said.
He said the accused strangulated the boy as he cried. “...Veerpal Singh and school principal Laxman Singh were also present at the spot and were guarding it,” he said. He added the accused confessed to police that the student was sacrificed for the prosperity of the school and the owner’s family.
