5-yr-old child killed, mob lynches man suspecting human sacrifice

Tezpur: The murder of a five-year-old child triggered an episode of mob frenzy as the man suspected to be behind the crime was lynched after being branded a 'tantrik' in Rangapara Tea Estate in Assam's Sonitpur district today.

District Superintendent of Police Sanjukta Parasar, however, said that initial inquiries revealed that the child was killed over some monetary dispute.

Parasar said that the person lynched by the mob, identified as one Nanu Mirdha, was not a tantrik.

Locals, however, claimed Mirdha was a 'tantrik' and had hacked the child to death as a human sacrifice to Goddess Kali at a place of worship at No.8, Rangapara Tea Estate.

After the child's body was found, Mirdha was nabbed by the crowd and beaten to death, police said.

Parasar said that the child's father, Sanatan Bag, and Mirdha earlier worked together in Manipur and some trouble had cropped up between them over money. That was the reason behind the ghastly killing, she said.

The situation in the area has now been brought under control, she added.