AFTER HIS wife left him and went to live with her parents, Manoj Prajapat of Sarai Kalan village near the Rajasthan-Haryana border took the advice of a “tantric” and allegedly decided to sacrifice a child as a means to “control” her and bring her back, police said. This, they said, led to the killing of Prajapat’s six-year-old nephew.
Mahaveer Singh, SHO of Mundawar police station in Rajasthan’s Khairtal-Tijara district, said the “tantric”, 38-year-old Sunil, told Prajapat to “sacrifice his nephew, bring his blood, heart, and Rs 12,000 for the ritual at midnight on Saturday”.
According to the SHO, Sunil told Prajapat that Goddess Kali demands a sacrifice. “Tu tere bhatije ki bali de (Sacrifice your nephew),” the tantric allegedly told him, police said.
SHO Singh said that Prajapat’s wife left for her parents’ home after the couple quarrelled and that she was upset over his addiction to intoxicants, among other things.
Prajapat then allegedly planned to abduct and kill the six-year-old son of his wife’s sister.
On the day of the ritual, July 19, he allegedly strangled the child to death, police said.
The child’s family, panicked after he remained missing, informed the local police. Following an intensive search, police found the body in a pile of fodder in an abandoned house near the child’s home.
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“Prajapat wanted to control and bring her (his wife) back home through the ritual,” the SHO said. The police also discovered that Prajapat had extracted blood from the child through injections, as per Sunil’s demand.
Police said they suspected Prajapat as he was the last to be seen with the child and was also allegedly trying to mislead investigators. They said the case was cracked after they questioned him and he told them the reason for his actions.
Prajapat was arrested on Monday and Sunil on Tuesday. “It is a heinous case. Their mind gets possessed while doing such acts,” the SHO said.
