India arrests five over human sacrifice at temple

theVibes.com:

India arrests five over human sacrifice at temple

However, several culprits still at large four years after discovery of woman’s headless body

Five suspects have been arrested over the killing of Shanti Shaw, 64, who was decapitated with a machete in 2019 after visiting the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati, a city in India’s remote northeast. – Wikipedia pic, April 5, 2023


GUWAHATI – Indian police have arrested five men accused of conducting a human sacrifice, nearly four years after the discovery of the victim’s headless body at a Hindu temple left officers baffled.

Shanti Shaw, 64, was killed and decapitated with a machete in 2019 after visiting the temple in Guwahati, a city in India’s remote northeast.

Police made no headway in the case until Shaw’s body was finally identified in January, sparking a renewed investigation that tracked down several culprits, with others still at large.

“The five planned the killing of the woman,” Guwahati police commissioner Diganta Barah told reporters late yesterday. “A total of 12 people took part.”

Barah said the alleged ringleader, Pradeep Pathak, 52, had orchestrated the killing as part of a religious rite to mark the anniversary of his brother’s death.

"The accused apparently believed that the sacrifice would appease the soul of the deceased,” he added.

Pathak and four others were taken into custody between March 25 and April 1, with police still hunting for their remaining seven accomplices.

India’s National Crime Records Bureau lodged 103 cases of human sacrifice in the country between 2014 and 2021.

Ritual killings are usually conducted to appease deities and are more common in tribal and remote areas, where belief in witchcraft and the occult is widespread.

Last year two men were arrested for allegedly killing a six-year-old boy in the capital New Delhi.

The culprits, both construction workers, told police they murdered the child as an offering to the Hindu god Shiva to get rich. – AFP, April 5, 2023

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kt comments:

Ritual sacrifice through the sembileh-ing of a human being had happened in Malaysia before, in fact, on more than one occasion.

Remember Mona Fandey?

She was the mastermind in the decapitation of former Malaysian politician, Datuk Mazlan Idris, (then ADUN for Batu Talam, Pahang).

Mona Fandey's real name was Nur Maznah Binti Ismail, a former pop singer, subsequently a bomoh and in the end a terrifying murderer.




Wikipedia informs us (extracts):

After leaving the music business, she became involved in black magic activities and was known to be a bomoh, a local shaman. She began offering her services to clients, mostly from the upper-class society. She also claimed to have provided politician clients in the ruling party with a variety of charms and talismans.

It was reported that Mazlan Idris, a state assemblyman for the constituency of Batu Talam in the state of Pahang, wanted to boost his political career and sought the services of Mona for assistance.

Mazlan was educated in the United States and was an ambitious politician from the ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) party.

At that time, Mona worked with her husband Mohamad Nor Affandi Abdul Rahman, 44, and their assistant Juraimi Hassan, 31. Mona and her husband promised to help Mazlan by giving him a talisman consisting of a cane and sbatmi (sbatmi are Malayan amulets made from the seeds of the oil palm. It looks like a black pearl in its finished state) headgear which was supposedly owned by former Indonesian President Sukarno.

husband Mohamad Nor Affandi Abdul Rahman



assistant Juraimi Hassan


Mona convinced Mazlan that he would be "invincible" if he held the talisman. In return, Mona demanded RM 2.5 million. Mazlan paid the couple RM 500,000 as deposit, and gave them 10 land titles as surety for the remaining RM 2 million.

An appointment was made for cleansing rituals to be performed at Mona's house. Mazlan was told to lie on the floor face up while Mona placed flowers on him. She then told Mazlan to close his eyes and wait for the money to "fall from the sky".

Juraimi then, using an axe, chopped Mazlan's head off. They also dismembered and partially skinned Mazlan's body. His body was found in 18 parts buried in a storeroom near Mona's house in Kampung Peruas, Ulu Dong, Raub, Pahang.



Mona Fandey was what Chinese would described as a person with hair growing on her heart (Penang Hokken calls it 'sim snere mor') - also see my previous post Hair grow from/on his heart.

But the Mona Fandey case, unbelievably cruel as it was, had nothing to do with the occult but only sheer murderous greed. Occultism was exploited by the murderess for her opportunistic avarice, though in her final moments of her execution by hanging, Mona Fandey did boastfully uttered the words 'aku takkan mati' (I will never die), and was reported as still calm and smiling.




Yes sir, I don't mind admitting she (especially her grinning face) gave and still gives me the heebie jeebies, wakakaka.

Then there were two more cases, more to do with the occult than the Mona Fandey con-case.

Almost twenty (20) years ago, local news reported that a group of Indian men wanted to obtain the winning 4-digit numbers from the Goddess Kali.

Apparently their imploration was accompanied by the ultimate votive offering, where an American woman, Carolyn Janice Ahmad, was murdered as a blood sacrifice.

There was also another reported case of a young Indian boy sacrificed for similar reason through the gruesome act of decapitation. The extent to which some desperate gamblers would go is a chilling thought.

A pathological gambler is one who just cannot stop gambling and the extent to which he/she and company would go to, is frighteningly heinous and terrifying. I bet (pun not intended) most of us have witnessed or even personally know such a scary creature.

But the horrendous case in India was all about appeasing the relevant god in sheer occult fashion, and not about mere votive offerings (albeit of the ultimate kind) for gambling benefits.