There was this rather disturbing event in Jharkhand when a girl was killed with ritualistic intentions only for superstition but the investigators showed that her own mother, a woman, was at the scene of the murder. It was a tragedy that was revealed about Kusumbha village, showing the horror of faith and the abuse.
The incident took place on 24 March while the neighborhood was celebrating Ram Navami. Late that evening the young girl was missing from a religious procession that started the next morning, and her body was found at 8:30 AM for a good two hours under a local school and bamboo grove, hitting the whole nation in a big bang.
A case was filed in the wake of the victim’s mother’s letter and through the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and POCSO Act against Dhaneshwar Paswan and others. But as the investigation progressed, so did the case take a surprising turn.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up on 26 March to study the case by the Director General of Jharkhand Police and Superintendent of Police of Hazaribagh. An investigation found that the mother of the girl is now one primary culprit.
The police confirmed the mother had been in contact with Shanti Devi, 55, also known as a so-called Bhagtin, who does occult ritual work. Shanti Devi convinced her mother that her son was hurt and it’s time she had to give herself up to her personal struggles she’d never considered before.
The mother and her partner, Bhim Ram (40) took the girl to the home of the occultist under the pretence of performing a ritual. The child was then taken to a bamboo grove where the crime took place.
Bhim Ram strangled the child as the mother held her legs. The suspects were also involved in other kinds of acts as part of the ritual, but abandoned the body at the scene.
All three of these culprits the mother, her partner, and the occultist have thus been arrested and remanded in the judiciary. The police said the crime was truly an eye-opener to the dangers of superstition and unscientific beliefs.
Those who are active have been urged to monitor what they see around and report suspicious activities. There was no question the case revived concern about blind faith in certain regions, and that this is something we have got to be aware of to prevent from taking place.
And this horrifying incident is, for sure, a grim reminder of how misinformation and superstition can lead to unimaginable acts of violence and is an example you have had one from a family.
