In a bizarre incident, a five-month-old infant was burnt alive by his mother allegedly to appease God in Assam’s Sivsagar district. The ghastly incident took place at Sonari in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district bordering Nagaland late Monday night, police said on Tuesday.
The accused Ranju Devi (30) committed the crime when others in the family were in deep slumber, the police said.
Ranju Devi’s brothers —Sunil Shah and Vijay Shah — are both daily wage earners who have been staying at a rented house in Sonari for some time now. She had come to visit them from Darbhanga in Bihar about four days back along with her husband Chote Shah and three children — a three-year-old daughter and five-month-old twin sons.
The locals claimed a tantrik visited Ranju Devi at least twice in the past three days and advised her to perform a puja and sacrifice one of her sons to god. She was purportedly upset after her dream that if she did not sacrifice one, both will die.
“She has confessed the crime. After being tipped off by the locals, we retrieved the body of the infant from a nearby jungle where it was buried moments after the incident,” said the officer-in-charge of Sonari police station Durlav Das.
“Apparently, she is not mentally stable and was, perhaps, driven by superstitious beliefs to commit the crime. The body has been sent for autopsy,” he said. The police have arrested Ranju Devi, Chote Shah and Sunil Shah while Vijay Shah is still absconding.