Four persons were arrested on the charge of killing a 65-year-old farmer in a human sacrifice ritual to unearth a hidden treasure, in Anjanapura village in Shikaripur taluk, on March 17.
The police named the arrested as Shekharappa, Rangappa, Manjunatha, and Ghouse Peer, residents of the same village. The beheaded and mutilated body of Shesha Naik, a farmer in Anjanapura, was found in an arecanut plantation on the outskirts of the village on March 7. Shivananda Naik, son of the victim, who is the complainant in the case, had told the police that his father didn’t have animosity towards anyone in the village.
A special team of Shikaripur rural police was formed to nab the culprits responsible for the gruesome murder. A few days after the incident, the police received information that Ghouse Peer, a labourer from the village, had gone missing on the day the murder took place. By tracking call details of Ghouse Peer’s mobile, the police arrested him. On questioning Ghouse Peer, three others allegedly involved in the crime were arrested.
Abhinav Khare, Superintendent of Police, said that Shekharappa, who was a priest in the temple of Honnemarada Chowdamma, the village deity, had told the three other arrested that there was a treasure hidden near the temple and that it could be unearthed only after a human sacrifice.
When Shesha Naik was collecting fodder for cattle in the arecanut plantation on the outskirts of the village, they assaulted him with lethal weapons, the police said. A case has been booked.
