The Nelamangala police have booked five people--two women and three men--for allegedly attempting to sacrifice a 10-year-old girl from their neighborhood to “ward off evil”.
However the accused have denied the allegations and said that they had taken the girl to perform a puja for a stone laying ceremony for a temple they were planning to build. No arrests have been made so far. The accused have been detained for questioning.
The incident occurred at Gandhi Grama on the outskirts of the city on Monday. The police registered an FIR on Saturday after conducting a detailed probe baked on the complaint lodged by the parents. The five accused have been charged under the Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Act and also for kidnapping and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code.
“The girl was living with her grandmother where she was enrolled in a government school in standard 4. Her parents are labourers and live in Magadi,” said a police officer.
The day the incident occurred, the girl’s grandmother was not at home. The victim was alone when two of the accused, Savithramma and her daughter Soumya who live in the area, took the girl out under the pretext of giving her prasada , alleged the girl’s mother, Mala, in her complaint to the police.
When the grandmother returned home, she saw that the victim was missing and started searching for her. She found the girl with the accused at a field adjacent to the house. “In her statement, Mala said her daughter was crying incessantly asking the two women to let her go. They had performed some rituals on the girl,” said the police.
