- Ten-year-old boy mutilated and sacrificed in witchcraft ceremony by Indian worker who thought he could use magic to make his wife pregnant
A 10-year-old boy was mutilated and sacrificed in a witchcraft ceremony, police have reportedly said.
An Indian worker is alleged to have told officers that he murdered the boy, identified as Pranshu, a third year standard student, in a bid to help his wife become pregnant, the Times of India said.
The body of the child was found by his father in a sugarcane field in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with mutilated ears and heels two days after he went missing.
When the grim discovery was made in the village of Rooppur Kamalu, in Pilibhit, on November 23, it was initially thought he had been attacked by animals.
Officers only launched an investigation after the post mortem examination revealed the boy had been murdered.
Pranshu had been reported missing by his family on November 21.
A local man, named only as Durgesh, who was said to have been a neighbour of the victim, was later arrested, the Times of India reported. The wife of the arrested man is due to be quizzed by officers, it has been said.