To cure wife's 'mental illness', man in Agra rapes and murders four minor girls on tantrik's advice

When Sonu from Agra went to a tantrik to ask for a cure for his wife’s purported mental illness, the prescription he got was a horrific one. With tragic consequences, he heeded the advice, allegedly committing the rape and murder of four minor girls in the course of five years. The Times of India published a report on the case on Friday.

While the police had registered a case on three previous occasions, this was the first time that they arrested the accused. When they took him in custody, they discovered that he was planning to kill three more girls, as the tantrik had asked him to kill seven minor girls in all.

One of his four victims, whose head was smashed with a stone, was as young as four years old.

The police alleged that Sonu was the friend of a man named Lalua Balmiki, who had been lynched to death by an angry mob after being accused of the rape and murder of a 12-year old girl. Sonu is said to have told the police that Lalua had helped him commit the gruesome acts.

Just days earlier, there had been another incident of a shocking crime committed on the advice of a self-professed spiritual godman. On July 27, a 25-year old woman in Firozabad was burnt with hot tongs after she was taken to a tantrik by her in-laws in order to exorcise her of “evil spirits,” TOI had reported. Earlier this month, the same newspaper had reported that workers in some hospitals were found to have been removing organs from human bodies during post-mortem examinations and selling them to tantriks, who would then use them for black magic.

Like most other states in India, Uttar Pradesh does not have a specific law to deal with such crimes. Only Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra have laws dealing with crimes related to black magic or exorcisms. Maharashtra was the latest to pass legislation in this regard. You can read more on this issue in this article by Down to Earth .