Sonitpur, Assam:
A five-year-old boy was beheaded at a tea garden in Assam's Sonitpur district on Wednesday evening.
The accused, a man in his mid-30s named Nanu Mirdha, allegedly lured the child to his house in the Tarajuli Tea Estate in Ramapara area of Sonitpur, and beheaded him.
When locals found about the incident, they dragged him out of his house and lynched him, the police said.
Police suspect that the beheading could be a case of child sacrifice as idols of gods and goddesses and other religious material were recovered from the place where the boy's body was found. Locals allege that the accused is a tantrik.
However, police also said that the accused had a running dispute with the father of the child. The two men stayed just three to four houses away. On Wednesday, the accused allegedly picked up a quarrel with the father of the child and the argument reportedly went on for many hours. Later in the evening, he allegedly dragged the boy into his house and hacked him to death with a machete and also beheaded him.
Police are yet to make any arrests and say they are trying to ascertain the identities of those who were involved in the lynching of the accused.