Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Nov 19 It was a book on black magic, sold at a stall at the Kanpur railway station, that led to the gruesome murder of a six-year-old girl whose organs were later devoured by a couple in an occult ritual.
"The accused Parshuram said he got married in 1999 but his wife Sunaina had not been able to conceive since.
"He revealed that he bought a book on black magic from a stall at a railway station and after reading a remedy for having a child, he convinced his nephew Ankul and his friend Veeran, to help carry out the heinous crime," SP (Rural) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava said.
Srivastava said that Ankul and Veeran drank heavily and then abducted the girl from Bhadras village while she had gone out to buy firecrackers on November 14 (the Diwali night).
They took her to a nearby jungle, where they raped the girl before killing her.
"The killers thereafter cut out her lungs and other organs from the body so that Parashuram and his wife Sunaina could perform black magic for bearing a child," said the police official.
"The accused have been charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sent to jail," he added.
Some social organisations have urged railway authorities to keep a check on content at the book stalls at the platforms.
"If books promoting superstition and having porn content are freely sold, such incidents are bound to take place. We urge the concerned authorities to check this immediately," Rina Singh, of 'Maqsad' social organisation, said.
( With inputs from IANS )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor