12-year-old girl's grave in Tamil Nadu dug up, head found missing

CHENNAI: Thirteen days after a 12-year-old girl's death, her family conducting a ritual at a burial ground in Chengalpet on Wednesday morning found the ground dug up and the head missing. They have lodged a complaint with the Sithamur police station suspecting that the theft could be the aftermath of a black magic ritual.
Krithika, a Class VI student, was playing outside her house in Chithiravadi on October 5 when a dilapidated electric pole, being attended to by a man, fell on her. She was rushed to Chengalpet government hospital and later shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital where she died on October 14. On October 15, after the final rites, the body was buried at a cemetery.
On Wednesday morning, the family members were preparing for a ritual when they found the grave dug up and the area littered with lemons and turmeric. The police along with the revenue department officials and government hospital authorities dug the grave fully to find the girl's head severed from the body.
The officials sent the body for postmortem to Chengalpet government hospital where doctors confirmed the head was removed from the body after it was buried.
Following this, police registered a case and are on the lookout for those who vandalised the grave. They are also probing to find out if the skull was removed for purposes of black magic, as some people in the area claimed it could have been used for a 'special pooja' during the partial solar eclipse on Tuesday.