Overview
- Police say a mentally challenged villager was lured to a house, drugged during a meal and then beheaded in a ritual that investigators link to occult worship.
- Local residents found the victim’s headless body floating in a village pond and alerted authorities, who traced the case to the accused’s home.
- Investigators recovered the victim’s severed head from a worship or puja area inside the house and seized a blood-stained sharp weapon believed to be the murder instrument.
- Five people have been arrested, including the prime suspect Shatrughna Sahu and several family members, and police recreated the scene as part of ongoing inquiries.
- Officials say the suspected motive was a superstition-driven ritual aimed at restoring the suspect’s personal fortunes or reuniting him with an estranged wife, and forensic tests and further questioning are continuing.