Three members of a family in Barabanki have been arrested for allegedly killing a 15-year-old boy from the same locality on the advice of an occultist, the police said on Wednesday.

Akshay Kumar, station house officer of Asandra Police station, said, “A family of Tharupur village approached an occultist to get their children cured of mental illness around a month ago. He gave them a choice between animal and human sacrifice. The family chose to sacrifice Divakar Yadav, a boy of the same village, as they could not arrange a pair of oxen.”

According to Kumar, at least three children of family reportedly have mental illness.

The police on Sunday arrested the suspects – Ramgopal, his mother Siyawati and their relative Ramshankar, who is afflicted with polio. The accused have been charged with murder (section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) but the occultist is still absconding.

On August 4, investigators had suspected some occult practices on seeing the condition of the boy’s body. “The body was draped in a red saree with vermillion applied on his forehand. He was also wearing bangles. It appeared that the boy was strangled, then his body dressed as a woman before being hung from a tree in the forest,” said the SHO.

The accused occultist, identified as Ramabhikash, is a distant relative of Siyawati, the police official said.

“Many villagers confirmed that he used to visit the house of Siyawati before the Divakar Yadav was abducted and killed,” said the SHO. (Hindustan Times)