From Bhupen Goswami
Guwahati: Five persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the human sacrifice incident that took place at the Kamakhya temple in June 2019. Keeping an eye on all the incidents, there may be suspicion that other such incidents alo is likely to come to light, a senior police officer said.. For this reason, the police have continued to interrogate 5 accused. The incident took place at Jai Durga Temple in Kamakhya during the Ambubasi Mela on June 19, 2019.
Guwahati Police Commissioner Digant Bora, while addressing a press conference, gave detailed information about the human sacrifice incident. Bora said the headless body of an unidentified woman was found from the staircase of Jai Durga temple on June 19. In this regard, a case was registered at Jalukbari police station and a detailed investigation was started.On July 28, 2019, the victim’s son Suresh Shaw, a resident of Tatipada in Hooghly, West Bengal, reached Jalukbari police station after he received the news of the woman’s unclaimed head body and on the basis of clothes and other things, he identified the body as that of his mother Shanti Shaw (64). According to Suresh, his mother had come to Kamakhya on the occasion of Ambubasi Mela in July 2019 and has been missing since then, the Guwahati Police Commissioner said. Mr Bora further said that a special police team was formed to investigate the incident. On analysing technical evidence collected earlier, a special police team went to Behar in West Bengal and searched the house of the man identified as Kailash Barman on March 18 this year.
After conducting a search operation, the victim’s handset and other items like clothes and ID proofs were recovered from Burman’s house. According to Kailash Barman, a baba named Mata Prasad Pandey used to visit his village regularly during June-July for the last eight years. In 2019, Baba left the victim’s belongings saying that the bag contained her belongings, which he would take away later. Mata Prasad Pandey (50), a resident of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, was arrested on March 25 this year, Guwahati Police Commissioner Digant Bora said. On further interrogation, it was revealed that a Kapali Puja was held at Bhootnath on the intervening night of June 18 and 19, 2019, in which around 12 people, including the victim, were participated. The worshippers consumed alcohol. The victim was also given alcohol. He then visited the cremation ground in Kamakhya and performed a second puja there. The group of men then went to Jai Durga temple in Kamakhya and beheaded the victim in the name of human sacrifice. After committing the heinous crime, they put the victim’s head in a bag and dumped her in the Brahmaputra river and left. Suresh Paswan (56), Kanu Achari (62) and Bhaiyyaram Maurya (60) were arrested from Bhootnath area and Pradeep Pathak (52) from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh on the basis of the statement of Mata Prasad Pandey.
