The Uttar Pradesh police arrested 11 people from a group of 12 who are accused of killing a four-year-old boy as a sacrifice to find treasure in Pilibhit district, on Thursday, November 28.

According to the police, two occultists had told the accused that sacrificing the boy would lead them to a treasure hidden in the village.  

The four-year-old had gone missing on November 17 from a field where his father was working. The boy’s body was recovered from a pond in Purniya Ramgulam village in the district.

“All the 11 arrested have confessed to killing the boy for finding treasure. The accused were told by two occultists — Omkar and Bhagat — that there was an ancient treasure hidden in the village. They were told that they need to sacrifice a child in order to obtain the treasure. The 12 then made a plan to abduct a child from the village,” said Maniram Singh, Station House Officer (SHO) of Bisalpur, as quoted by The Indian Express.

The police recovered religious articles like a Trishul and a piece of cloth on which the boy was made to lie down before he was killed. The police also said that the boy was killed using a sharp object used to break the ice.

“The boy was brutally killed by these people. Six of them took part in the ritual of killing the child, while the other six watched from a distance of around 20 yards,” a police officer involved in the investigation was quoted as saying.

The police had initially considered it as a case of drowning, despite the post-mortem report revealing several wounds. The child’s father then sought the intervention of Ram Saran Verma, BJP MLA from Bisalpur.

“Despite visible injuries on his body and the disclosure of actual cause of death in the autopsy report, police said that he died of drowning,” the boy’s father was quoted in The Times Of India.

The MLA has also asked for an inquiry against the SHO of Bisalpur. “This was an example of extreme negligence on part of the SHO Mani Ram. I have asked district magistrate Vaibhav Shrivastav and SP Abhishek Dixit to ensure stringent action against the officer,” Verma was quoted by the media.

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