In a grisly incident fueled by blind superstition, a 10-year-old boy was found murdered with his throat slit open in a field, allegedly slain as a human sacrifice, in a village of Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district, police said on Sunday, adding that three persons have been arrested in this connection.

A senior police official said the minor boy, identified as Vivek Verma, was reported missing by his father Krishna Verma—a resident of Parsa village—on Thursday night.

Superintendent of Police Prashant Verma said that following the complaint, police launched a search to locate the boy and found his body in a field on the same night with his throat slit open.

The officer said preliminary investigations revealed that the slain child’s cousin and one of the accused, Anoop had a two-and-half year-old mentally-challenged son who is often ill of health and when multiple prolonged treatments did not yield any positive results for the toddler, Anoop sought out a Tantrik (occultist) near his village who prompted him to perform a human sacrifice in order to cure his sick child.

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Fueled by blind superstition and blinded by the love for his own child, Anoop abducted his cousin, Vivek and together with his Vivek’s uncle and Anoop’s father, viciously hacked the minor child to death with a spade.

Following the investigation, the three accused, Anoop, his father Chintaram and the occultist—were arrested on Saturday, police said, adding that a case of murder has been registered against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), adding that further probe is underway.

In a similar incident leading to the death of a minor due to superstitious practices, in February a one-year-old toddler was killed in Uttar Pradesh after his family took him to a local tantrik who allegedly threw him on the ground and also broke his teeth to “heal” him.

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