Woman’s headless body found near Guwahati’s Kamakhya temple, cops suspect human sacrifice

Police said nobody had reported hearing any distress calls and they did not find marks of struggle or any injury on the body in the initial probe.

The discovery of a woman’s headless body a few hundred metres away from the Kamakhya Temple here on Wednesday has prompted the Assam Police to investigate if it is a case of human sacrifice.

Police suspect the victim may have been sedated before being killed. (Representative Photo/Getty Images)

The incident comes just three days before the annual Ambubachi Mela which kicks off on June 22. The annual festival draws lakhs of devotees from different parts of the country.

According to KK Chowdhury, DCP, Guwahati West, police received information at around 5.30 pm of the presence of a dead body on a staircase on the road on Nilachal Hill which leads up to the Kamakhya Temple.

The body of the unidentified woman said to be in her 40s was found semi naked, with her head missing. Near the dead body, the police found an earthen lamp, an earthen pot, red thread used for religious purposes, an empty plastic bottle, a steel tumbler and a plastic hand fan.

“This material is used generally for pooja. The killer may have brought oil in the plastic bottle,” said Chowdhury who had visited the crime site.

Curiously, the police did not find too much blood on the spot or on the dead body. “There was some blood stains on the wall and little blood on the clothes,” said Chowdhury.

The police said nobody had reported hearing any distress calls and they did not find marks of struggle or any injury on the body in the initial probe. “It is likely that the killer may have sedated the victim before killing her,” said Chowdhury.

The police officer said they are suspecting it to be a case of human sacrifice. “All the initial evidence and the circumstance point to it,” Chowdhury said.

He said the police teams have already visited three crematoriums in the city and will look for clues in more such places apart from investigating other angles. “If indeed it is a case of human sacrifice than the killer might go to a crematorium for rituals,” said Chowdhury adding the police have not found any such clues from the three crematoriums.

Chowdhury said body will sent for postmortem on Thursday.

The temple is dedicated to the mother goddess Kamakhya and it is regarded as one of the oldest of the 51 Shakti Pithas in the country.