Five persons have been arrested for their involvement in the human sacrifice incident at Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati that took place on June 2019.
The incident occurred at Joy Durga Mandir in Kamakhya during Ambubachi Mela on June 19, 2019.
Guwahati Commissioner of Police Diganta Barah while addressing a press conference spoke in details about the human sacrifice incident.
Diganta Barah said, “The beheaded body of an unidentified woman was found in the staircase of Joy Durga Mandir on June 19. In this connection, a suo-moto case was registered under the Jalukbari Police Station and a detailed investigation was launched. On July 28, 2019, the son of the victim, Suresh Shaw hailing from Tatipara in West Bengal’s Hooghly reached the Jalukbari Police Station after he learnt about the news of the recovery of the headless body of the woman and, based on her apparels and other identification marks identified the victim as his mother Santi Shaw (64).”
The Guwahati CP said that according to Suresh, his mother had come to Kamakhya on the occasion of Ambubachi Mela in the same month and had been missing since then.
Barah further said that a special team of the police was constituted to investigate the incident. Upon analyzing technical evidences collected earlier, the special police team went to Cooch Behar in West Bengal and carried out a search in the house of a person identified as Kailash Barman on March 18 this year. After carrying out search operations, the victim’s handset and other belongings like clothe and ID proof was recovered from Barman’s house.
As stated by Kailash Barman, Mata Prasad Pandey used to regularly visit their village during June-July since the last eight years. In the year 2019, the babaji visited his house and left those belongings of the victim stating that the bag had his belongings which he would collect later.
“Mata Prasad Pandey (50 years) of Jabbalpur in Madhya Pradesh was arrested on March 25, this year. On further interrogation, it came to light that, in the intervening night of June 18 and 19 of 2019, a Kapali puja was held in Bhootnath where around 12 persons took part which included the victim too. The persons who conducted the puja had consumed alcohol. The victim was also made to drink alcohol. They then visited the cremation ground at Kamakhya and offered another puja there. The group of men then went to the Joy Durga Mandir in Kamakhya and beheaded the victim in the name of human sacrifice,” said Diganta Barah.
After committing the heinous crime, they took the head of the victim in a bag and disposed it off in the Brahmaputra River and left.
Meanwhile, on the basis of Mata Prasad Pandey’s statement, Suresh Paswan (56), Kanu Acharjee (62) and Bhaiyaram Maoriya (60) were arrested from Bhootnath, and Pradeep Pathak (52) was arrested from Mathura in Uttar Prdaesh.
