The Uttar Pradesh city Hathras, which came under the nationwide spotlight in 2020 when four men gang-raped and murdered a 19-year-old girl in the city, is once again making the headlines for the wrong reasons. In a chilling incident earlier this week, a class 2 student was murdered in his school’s hostel as part of a human sacrifice ritual. He was studying at DL Public School, where five people conspired to sacrifice him in a bid to ensure success and prosperity for the school.
The five accused include the school’s director, Dinesh Baghel, his father, Jasodhan Singh, and three teachers – Laxman Singh, Veerpal Singh, and Ramprakash Solanki. The police revealed that Jasodhan Singh believed in black magic and tantrik rituals, and he, along with the other four perpetrators, believed that killing the boy would bring the school success and glory.
In a heinous revelation, the police said that the five had attempted to kill another boy in the recent past, but their attempt had failed.
On Monday morning, when a staff member and other students found that the boy was in his hostel bed but not responding, Dinesh Baghel tried to cover up his crime by taking the boy’s body in his car and driving around under the pretext of getting him to a hospital for several hours. The school told the boy’s family that he was unwell, but when they reached the school, they could not find their child.
The boy’s father called the local police, and a manhunt was launched for Dinesh Baghel, who was apprehended after a few hours of search. The police found the boy’s dead body in Baghel’s car and saw that the boy had injury marks on his neck. The police gave a statement saying that the autopsy revealed that the boy had been killed by strangulation on Sunday night. An FIR under section 103(1) of the BNS has been registered against the five accused.
