The Uttar Pradesh Police rescued a two-month-old infant kidnapped from Maharajganj for a ritual sacrifice. Officers arrested three people, including two women, after tracing them to a bus stand in New Delhi. The accused allegedly followed an occultist’s advice to perform the act on Amavasya to stop family deaths.
Prompted by advice from an occult practitioner, three people allegedly kidnapped a neighbour's baby in Maharajganj for an Amavasya ritual before the police traced them to Delhi and rescued the boy.
The Uttar Pradesh Police have rescued a two-month-old infant who was allegedly kidnapped from the Maharajganj district to be sacrificed on Amavasya (new moon night). The police arrested three people in connection with the crime, including two women, after tracing them to the Kashmiri Gate bus stand in New Delhi.
The accused allegedly believed that performing the sacrifice, on the advice of an occult practitioner in Nepal, would halt a series of premature deaths in their family and bring back two missing family members.
According to police, the infant's father, 30-year-old labourer Govind Rajbhar, filed a complaint on November 3 at the Thoothibari police station stating that an unidentified intruder stole his two-month-old son while he and his wife were sleeping. The police registered a kidnapping case and formed multiple teams to track down the infant.
The arrested accused have been identified as: Savitri, 38, a native of Maharajganj and neighbour of the complainant; Saraswati, 57, Savitri's mother, also from Maharajganj, who allegedly believed the ritual would return her husband and son, who have been missing for several years; Karan Kumar Gautam, 22, Savitri's second husband, a native of Deoria district residing in Delhi, who completed studies up to Class 10 and works in a private job.
The police said that after kidnapping the child from his home, the group planned to perform the sacrifice in Delhi within a day or two after realising the police were closing in on them.
CCTV trail and rescue operation
Station House Officer Amit Singh of the Thoothibari police station said that no other people have been found involved so far. The police operation unfolded through systematic technical surveillance and scene investigation.
Police teams inspected over 100 CCTV cameras and deployed dog squad units. Footage captured an unidentified woman carrying a child at 3.57 am on November 3. They traced her to a bus stand where she boarded a bus at 5 am. After contacting the driver, police learned she disembarked at Shikarpur crossing in Maharajganj. Local inquiries helped identify the woman as Savitri.
When the police reached Savitri's house, they found her absent. After she gave evasive answers over the phone, technical surveillance tracked her location to New Delhi.
Police teams intercepted Savitri and Karan Kumar Gautam at the Kashmiri Gate bus stand, recovering the unharmed infant. After verifying the child's identity by sending a photograph to his father via WhatsApp, the police took the suspects into custody and safely reunited the baby with his family following a medical examination.