5-year-old beheaded in Assam tea estate, angry mob lynches alleged killer

Tezpur: A five-year-old child was killed in Rangapara Tea Estate in Assam’s Sonitpur district on Thursday, said a police official.

A mob, however, claimed a ’tantric’ sacrificed the child during a Kali Puja and lynched him, District Superintendent of Police Sanjukta Parasar.

However, she said initial investigations revealed the child was killed due to some monetary dispute and that the person lynched had been identified as Nanu Mirdha, and he wasn’t a tantric.

The child’s father Sanatan Bag and Nanu Mirdha earlier worked together in Manipur and since then there was problem between them over a monetary transaction, Parasar said.

Police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control, the SP said, adding investigations were on.

Local people claimed that the deceased Mirdha, an inhabitant of the same labour line of the tea garden near Rangapara town was performing Kali Puja at his residence and forcefully took away the child and sacrificed him before the altar of idol goddess Kali.

PTI