Sanatan Bag, a 5-year-old boy, was beheaded in Guwahati, India, as part of a ritual sacrifice for the Hindu goddess of power, Kali.
Suspected occultist Nanu Mirdha decapitated the boy at an altar of his makeshift temple. When the boy's body was found in his own pool of blood, villagers and relatives turned on and killed Mirdha, according to the police chief for Assam's Sonitpur district, according to Business Insider.
The boy's father, Sajan Bag, believes that his son was lured by Mirdha's offering of chocolates. He said that he enticed his son until he got him inside the temple where he mercilessly beheaded him.
"We are investigating if it was a pure case of occult practice or personal rivalry that led to the incident," police said, according to Digital Journal.
While the majority of Indians now practice mainstream religions—and others only offer animal sacrifices—there are still groups in the remote and impoverished areas of the country that follow occult practices and have been reported to make human sacrifices, especially in the northeastern parts of the county.
