Two occult practitioners including an ex-serviceman today landed in police net for their alleged involvement in killing an eight-year-old boy as part of a human sacrifice ritual in Gokhapada village under Marshaghai area of Odisha's Kendrapara district.
Abhinash Choudhury, 47, the mastermind behind the child sacrifice, is an ex-serviceman. He was arrested along with his accomplice Das, 52, the police said.
Both the occult practitioners have confessed to the crime by revealing to the cops that they killed the boy on Tuesday last to attain super natural powers.
The duo had picked up the boy as a soft target for the ritual as they were known to his family.
On some pretext, they called him to a deserted place near the riverbed and the decent child fell prey to their devious ploy, said Kendrapara SP Satish Kumar Gajaviye.
The accused slit the throat of the victim by a sharp-edged weapon and after killing him, they collected the human blood to use it later in a sacrifice ritual, the police said.
Ex-serviceman Choudhury, a father of two, got himself involved in occult practices after his retirement.
The Police stumbled upon books on Tantric cult during a search of his house. Neither his spouse nor the children were aware of Choudhury's black magic practices, they said.
The assailants were booked under IPC section 302 read with 34 and later remanded to judicial custody following rejection of their bail plea in the local court.
The blood-stained body of class IV student Rajesh Nayak had been retrieved from the Luna riverbed on Tuesday evening.
Angry people yesterday protested by demonstrating and setting on fire the house of one of the occult practitioners.
