Guwahati, April 4 (IANS) At least five persons have been arrested in connection with the June 2019 human sacrifice case at Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, the police said on Tuesday. The headless body of a woman was found on the stairs of Joy Durga Temple in Kamakhya on June 19, 2019, following which a probe was launched.
Guwahati Commissioner of Police, Diganta Barah, told the media that the victim visited Kamakhya temple during the Ambubachi Mela, and has been missing since then.
“On June 2019, the beheaded body of an unidentified woman was spotted on the Joy Durga Mandir’s staircase. A thorough inquiry was started after a suo-moto case was filed in this regard at a police station,” he said.
Almost a month later, Suresh Shaw, a resident of Tatipara in West Bengal’s Hooghly, came to Guwahati’s Jalukbari police station and recognised the victim as his mother, Santi Shaw (64), on the basis of her clothes, and other identification marks, the police officer said.
Barah said a special police team was formed to look into the incident.
On March 18 this year, the special police squad travelled to Cooch Behar in West Bengal and conducted a search of a home belonging to a person identified as Kailash Barman after reviewing technical evidence previously gathered.
During searches, the victim’s phone along with other items like clothes and identification documents were recovered.
“As stated by Kailash Barman, one person, Mata Prasad Pandey, used to visit the village every year in June and July. Pandey has been continuing this practice for the last eight years. In the year 2019, Pandey went to Barman’s house and left the belongings of the victim saying that it was his property and he would later pick them up,” the police commissioner said.
“On March 25, this year, Mata Prasad Pandey (50) was taken into custody from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. Further questioning revealed that a Kapali puja, which included the victim, was held in Bhootnath (Guwahati) on the intervening night of June 18 and 19, 2019, and 12 people attended it. The people who performed the pooja consumed alcohol. The victim was also made to consume alcohol. They next went to Kamakhya’s crematory and performed another pooja there. The men then beheaded the victim at the Joy Durga Temple in Kamakhya in the name of human sacrifice,” the police officer said.
Pandey and others then packed the victim’s head in a bag and dumped it in the Brahmaputra river before leaving Guwahati.
Based on Pandey’s confession, the police also arrested Suresh Paswan (56), Kanu Acharjee (62) and Bhaiyaram Maoriya (60) from Bhootnath in Guwahati, while Pradeep Pathak (52) was arrested from Mathura.
–IANS
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