Child sacrificed, liver offered to gods: Indian police

Published : Jan. 2, 2012 - 11:37

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RAIPUR, India (AFP) - A seven-year-old Indian girl was murdered in a tribal sacrifice and her liver offered to the gods to improve crop growth, police in the central state of Chhattisgarh said on Sunday.

File illustration photo shows villagers of Dantewada District in the central state of Chhattisgarh. (AFP)

The body of Lalita Tati was found in October one week after her family reported her missing.

"A seven-year-old girl was sacrificed by two persons superstitiously believing that the act would give a better harvest," Narayan Das, the police chief of Bijapur district, told AFP by telephone.

The two men was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of killing the girl and offering her liver to the gods in a grisly tribal ceremony. Police said the men had confessed to the crime.

The girl was murdered in a jungle district of Chhattisgarh that is a stronghold of rebel Maoists who have tapped into disaffection among local tribal groups.

Human sacrifices occasionally make headlines in deeply religious and superstitious India, and usually occur in poor areas where some people revere practitioners of black magic.

Two suspected child sacrifices were reported in Chhattisgarh in 2010, while in the same year the decapitated body of a factory worker was found in a temple in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The victims are often ritually killed by witchdoctors to appease gods, spirits or deities.

<한글기사>

인도마을서 7세 여야 제물로 바쳐

인도의 한 농촌에서 7세 소녀를 살해해 장기를 신에게 제물로 바쳤다고 일요일 현지 경찰이 발표했다.

랄리타 타티라는 이름의 이 소녀는 지난 10월 인도 중부 차티스가르 주에서 실종된 지 일주일 만에 사체로 발견되었다.

“인간제물을 신에게 바치면 풍년이 든다고 믿는 두 사람이 한 7세 소녀를 희생양으로 바쳤다”고 현지 경찰서장이 AFP통신과의 전화통화에서 밝혔다.

두 남자는 수요일에 살인 혐의로 체포되었고 범행을 자백했다고 덧붙였다.

소녀는 마오주의 반군이 장악한 정글에서 살해되었다.

사람을 제물로 바치는 관습은 인도에서 극단적인 종교와 미신을 믿는 지역, 특히 주술사들을 믿는 가난한 지역에서 간간히 발생했다.

2010년에 차티스가르 주에서 두 명의 남자 어린이들이, 같은 해 서벵갈 주에서도 한공장 근로자가 희생되었다.

Child sacrificed, liver offered to gods: Indian police

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