Minor daughter killed in occult ritual for buried treasure, father held | Bhopal News

Bhopal: Barely 24 hours after three men were arrested in Raisen for a grisly murder during an occult ritual in the hope that it would help them unlock a hidden treasure, a similar incident came to light from the city.Sukhi Sewania police arrested a man for allegedly murdering his 17-year-old minor daughter during a black magic ritual, in the belief that it would help him unearth buried treasure.According to the police, the accused, a 40-year-old farmer, allegedly killed his daughter with the help of two accomplices, one of whom is a relative and alleged occultist, believing that sacrificing his own flesh and blood would lead them to hidden gold and silver.SP (Bhopal Rural) Pankaj Pandey said the girl, 17, dropped out of school after class 8.Incidentally, the alleged human sacrifice came to light after the girl’s family reported on April 3 that she had gone missing from their farm where she had gone to sleep. The police registered a case of abduction and launched an investigation.During the probe, the police recovered a skeleton from a field about 200 metres from the spot where the girl had disappeared on May 7, according to the complaint lodged by her parents.On the basis of clothes recovered from the spot, police identified the skeletal remains as the missing girl. Police subsequently opened an inquest and intensified the probe. The girl’s remains were sent to FSL after post-mortem, while her family members were asked to approach the agency for further investigation.However, the SP said instead of going to FSL, her father also went missing during the investigation, prompting the registration of a separate missing-person complaint. After his wife raised suspicion of foul play, and on the weight of technical evidence and inputs from informers, police traced the missing farmer to Ganj Basoda in Vidisha district on Tuesday.The police said during interrogation, the accused confessed to the murder, saying that he, along with two associates, assaulted the girl with a stick, strangled her to death and buried the body in a field as part of an occult practice they believed would land them the buried fortune on the boundary of his farm.Following the confession and further investigation, police invoked charges of murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy against him, replacing the earlier kidnapping charge.The farmer was arrested and the stick allegedly used in the crime was seized, the police said, adding that searches were on to apprehend the two accomplices.