Guwahati, Nov 16: In what has been claimed as a case of foiled human sacrifice, four persons have been detained in upper Assam’s Sivasagar district after locals handed them over to the police for attempting to kill their own children for a ‘hidden treasure’.
Police sources added that the locals of Dimowmukh, a village about 10km from district headquarters Sivasagar, and 370 KM East of Guwahati, had complained that a brother duo — Jamiur Hussain and Sariful Hussain — were about to attempt child sacrifice on the advice of a sorcerer, locally known as Bez.
Locals found out about the suspected crime before it turned real when they found six children — three from each brother — kept in confinement.
“Locals said a bez from Sonari about 45 km from Sivasagar town, had told the accused brothers that they will get the gold treasure hidden under a Mango tree in their house perimeters if they conduct the sacrifice,” said a police official from Sivasagar.
On suspecting their alleged motive, locals handed the two brothers, along with their wives and children, to Sivasagar Sadar Police Station.
“We, however, did not receive any eye witness or a formal complaint supporting the allegations of human sacrifice. So, we have kept the family in protective custody and we are carrying out our own investigation in the matter. We are also looking into the local’s allegations,” Sivasar Additional SP Jayanta Sharati Bora told reporters.
He said, according to the family’s version, they had shown their younger child who was suffering from several ailments for quite some time to a sorcerer in Sonari a month ago.
“The family maintains, villagers had suspected them wrongly ever since they had returned from Sonari. Police are trying to apprehend the sorcerer and then, we will be able to shed some light on the case,” Bora added.
This is not the first time such cases have been reported in Assam.
In 2013, a man had killed his 13-year-old son in Assam in what is being termed a case of human sacrifice.
Last year, another child was rescued by the police while his family was about to sacrifice him in Assam’s Udalgiri district.
