Man sacrifices 12-year-old nephew for bumper harvest in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: A 12-year-old boy was sacrificed by his uncle for a good harvest in the ongoing kharif season at a remote village in Odisha’s Nuapada district, police said on Sunday.
The incident took place at Jadamunda village under Komna police station in Nuapada, about 440km from the capital city, on Saturday. The accused confessed to the crime on Sunday following which a local court sent him to judicial custody.
Police said the accused Chintamani Majhi, 48, and his 18-year-old nephew Debarchan, the elder brother of the deceased, had gone to the fields to plough the land on Saturday morning. Debarchan’s younger brother, Dhansingh, came to the fields at around 9.30am with food for his uncle and brother. Later, Chintamani asked Dhansingh to follow him to another field to cut a tree. So he went along with him, police added.
“A few minutes later, I heard the cries of my younger brother from the nearby land. I felt he might have seen a snake. I, however, ran towards the field only to find his severed head lying there,” Debarchan said. At around 10am, Chintamani attacked the boy with a sharp weapon and severed his head, police said. Debarchan further added that sensing his presence around, his uncle Chintamani fled the spot. Following this, he immediately went to the local police station and informed them about the incident.
Police found Dhansingh’s body in the farmland and arrested Chintamani from the village. The accused confessed to have killed his nephew to appease the goddess for a bumper harvest. “We can say that it is a clear case of human sacrifice from his confession and the circumstance. The accused did it for a good harvest,” Nuapada SP Smith Parmar Parshottamdas said.
Saban Majhi, father of the deceased, works as a labourer in Andhra Pradesh. Chintamani owns 2.5 acres of land near the village and two acres of forest land.
“Some tribals practice choru (a local term for sacrifice) to get good yields. But they usually sacrifice hen, goats or other birds. Human sacrifice is rare nowadays,” a police officer said.