UP: Class 2 student killed as 'sacrifice' for school's 'prosperity' by owner; 5 held

A second standard student was allegedly ‘sacrificed’ for the ‘success’ of the school in which he studied in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district.

According to the police sources here, the 11-year old child was ‘sacrificed’ as part of ‘’black magic’’ by the owner of the school intended to bring success to the private school at Rasgawan in the district.

Police sources said that the child, who lived in the school hostel, was picked up while he was asleep on the night of September 22 by the owner of the school Dinesh Baghel and one of the teachers for being taken in a forested area where the father of the owner, who was a ‘tanrik’.

The child, however, woke up and started crying following which the teacher strangled him to death, police said on Thursday.

Dinesh informed the father of the child that the latter was unwell and that he was taking him to a doctor for treatment. He put the dead body of the child in his car and started looking for a place to dump the body.

The child’s family members, who were looking for him, managed to intercept Dinesh’s car near Sadabad in the district the next day and recovered the body of the child.

Dinesh told the cops, who had reached there on getting the information, that the child had fallen sick and that he had taken him to a doctor but had died on way to a specialised centre in Agra.

The autopsy however revealed that the child was strangled to death. Police thereafter arrested the owner, his father and the teacher Rm Prakash Solanki. Two others, including the principal of the school, were also arrested in this connection, the police said.

Police said that Dinesh had earlier also planned to ‘sacrifice’ another child for the same purpose but the plan did not succeed.