Thaindian News

Thane (Maharashtra), Dec 1 (IANS) A local court here Thursday sentenced seven people to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for murder of two children, which later turned out to be a case of human sacrifice. The kids’ parents were also among the seven.

Additional Sessions Judge R.M. Joshi sentenced the seven for murdering Om, 7, and Ritika, 3, in the name of a spiritual cleansing ceremony.

Joshi also added one more year of imprisonment for the father, Vishal Jaiswal, for hiding information and misleading the police.

A fine of Rs.3,000 was also slapped on Vishal, his wife Rita and his father Sachalal along with his three brothers - Sanjay, Dinesh and Satish and Satish’s wife Dolly.

The eighth accused, Sumitradevi, Vishal’s mother was set free due to lack of evidence.

On Oct 15, 2010, residents of Jai Matadi apartment at Ostwal Nagri in Nalasopara town, rushed to the residence of Vishal and Rita to answer their call for help and saw the kids lying unconscious.

Vishal informed them that his children suddenly fainted and fell down on the ground.

Neighbours immediately rushed both the children to a local doctor but were shocked to learn they were already dead. Later, the post-mortem of the two bodies revealed that Om and his little sister had died due to strangulation.

Police arrested the eight family members after they contradicted each other in their statements during interrogation.

One of the family member had revealed that the kids fainted after watching their maternal aunt Dolly behaving violently, as if overtaken by a spirit, after the Ashtami pooja.

She allegedly also danced on the bodies of the two kids alleging that they (kids) were overtaken by an evil spirit and that she could rescue them. The kids could not bear her weight on their neck and were strangulated.