Illness of 2-year-old son drove convict to kill cousin | Lucknow News
Lucknow: The brutal murder of a 10-year-old boy in Bahraich was triggered by blind faith and superstition after the accused was misled into believing that a human sacrifice would cure his ailing child, additional district govt counsel (Criminal) Sunil Jaiswal said on Friday.Explaining the motive behind the crime, Jaiswal said the convicted accused, Anoop Verma (27), had a 2-year-old son, Satyam, who remained frequently ill and often lost consciousness. “Despite repeated medical treatment, the child’s condition did not improve. Taking advantage of the family’s distress, a tantrik allegedly convinced Anoop Verma that sacrificing a child from within the family would bring relief, prosperity and good fortune,” he said.
According to the prosecution, Anoop Verma went on to murder his cousin—the son of his paternal uncle—as part of this ritual sacrifice. The victim was chosen because he was a close family member who trusted the accused completely. Jaiswal said that on the day of the incident, most family members, including the victim’s parents, Anoop Verma’s wife and his sick child, went to his in-laws’ house for a mundan ceremony. “Anoop deliberately stayed back. When the child returned home from school in the evening, he lured him on the pretext of buying toffees and took him to a nearby agricultural field,” he said. There, Anoop Verma brutally attacked the boy with a spade and slit his throat. Medical and forensic evidence presented before the court confirmed that the child suffered 9 grievous injuries and died due to ante-mortem damage to the trachea, consistent with ritual killing.
