A man has been arrested in the murder of a 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, whose bodies were discovered by villagers last week in Jharkhand’s Latehar district, police said. The beheaded bodies of the two minors were recovered by police on July 12, who also said that they have yet been unable to find the girl’s head.
The accused, 35-year-old Sunil Uraon, attempted to bury the bodies of the minors, but they were discovered by villagers after rain washed away part of the soil, the officer said. The villagers attribute the killing to some kind of sacrifice, but police refute this claim. Latehar SDO Jai Prakash Jha said “this seems to be a case of murder. However, the police team is also investigating this angle.” A forensic team was rushed to the spot too.
The girl was said to be missing since Wednesday last week, and the boy was reported missing the next day. Police searched Uraon’s home where they found evidence of a bloodstain, police said. He was out on bail when he committed this crime, DIG Vijay Shukla said. The girl went to a shop run by the accused when the accused tried to assault her, Shukla said, and the boy happened to witness it. He then took the two to his home where he beheaded them, the officer said. He added that the weapon has been recovered.
While the boy’s head was found a little away from their bodies, police say that Uraon is refusing to reveal the correct location of the girl’s head. This gruesome incident is a sobering reminder that incidents like these still take place. The villagers claim that the children were killed as part of a sacrificial ritual. If this is true, it just goes to show how we need to take steps to spread awareness about the dangers of such ‘superstitions’. We live in the 21st century, and it is sad that we come across cases like this, and I do not know when we will move forward, away from such incidents.