POLICE have arrested the 35- year-old mother of a teenage girl who was strangled in a sacrificialritual in Kusumbha village, along with anoccult practitioner and a man, an officer said. Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police Anjani Anjan and Hazaribag DIG Anjani Jha announced the arrests in a late night press conference on Wednesday. The police said they had arrested Reshmi Devi, the mother of the girl, 55-year-old Shanti Devi, an occultist, and 40-year old Bhim Ram, all of them from the same village. Anjani Anjan said Reshmi Devi often visited a ‘tantrik’ (occult practitioner) in her village for the treatment of her youngest son, who suffers from some mental and physical sickness.

 

“The occult practitioner told the mother that they needed to sacrifice a virgin girl to cure the son of all ailments,” he said. Theofficersaid thatonMarch 24, the night of Ashtami, when the entire village was immersed in festive celebrations and was seeing the Mangla Julus (a Ram Navami procession), the girl was strangled at the house ofShanti Devi, allegedly by her own mother and Bhim Ram. The police claimed that the tantrik inserted a wooden stick inside the girl’s private parts, while Bhim Ram struck her head to get the blood for the ritual.

 

They, after killing the girl, buried her body in a garden. Anjansaid that the three tried to mislead the investigators by claiming rape, which was not provedin thepost-mortem and forensic report. Bhim Ram also faces allegation sof murdering his sister-inlaw and another individual, Anjan added. The Jharkhand High Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the alleged rape and murder of the girl in Bishnugarh in Hazaribagh and served a notice to the State administration and the director general of police. A division bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Sanjay Prasad took note of the incident based on media reports. Earlier, the girl’s mother alleged that her daughter was abducted, and her body was found on March 25 in a field in the village. The Opposition BJP staged a 12-hour bandh in Hazaribagh on Monday to protest against the killing.