Man sacrifices niece to 'appease' goddess

Height of superstition

Nine-year-old Mona was pushed into a ditch in the fields by her uncle Shiv Kumar Yadav, who then covered it with mud, on Tuesday evening. The little girl suffocated to death, police sources here said.

Mona’s brother Ratan, who had also accompanied her, escaped after seeing Shiv Kumar bury his sister and informed his parents about the horrific incident.

Mona’s parents and other villagers then rushed to the fields and took her out of the ditch but she had died by then. Kumar was later arrested by the police. According to sources, Shiv Kumar, who works as a labourer in Punjab, had come to his native village of Manhana about a month back.He told the police that he wanted to be a rich man and for the fulfilment of his wishes he used to regularly visit a temple in Punjab.

“The goddess told me that my wishes will be fulfiled only if I sacrificed two children”, Kumar told the police during his interrogation at Tarabganj police station.

Police officials said that Kumar firmly believed in ‘exorcism’ and was also in contact with some ‘tantriks’ (exorcists).

He said that on returning to his village, he decided to sacrifice Mona and Ratan, the children of his own brother Nanhe Yadav.

 “Had Ratan not fled from there, he too would have been sacrificed,” sources said.

Incidents of sacrifice in UP towns have been a regular occurrence. Only recently a youth killed himself by cutting his neck with a sharp edged weapon at a famous temple in Sitapur district.

Similarly, two persons were hacked to death by their own brother in Gonda district a few days back in suspicion that the two, under the influence of some evil spirits, had killed his son.