A group of occultists beheaded 55-year-old Thepa Kharia in Jharkhand, India, in what is believed to be a human sacrifice ritual for a better harvest of crops and timely rains, said police authorities on Monday, according to The New Indian Express.
On Sunday, Kharia's headless corpse was found in his home located in the Gumla district, which is 80 miles away from the state's capital, Ranchi. His family accused the Orkas (also called Mudkatwa), an occultist group known for entombing human heads in fields for better crops.
According to police officials, Kharia was alone in his house when a group of Orkas attacked and decapitated him before fleeing with his head.
"Thepa was killed in the wee hours of Sunday. He used to live alone. Not finding Thepa in the Sunday market, villagers broke open his house's door. They found him lying in a pool of blood," said Ajay Kumar Thakur, head of the Palkhot police station, reported The Hindustan Times.
Thakur said Kharia's family members were forced to lodge a complaint. "Nobody in this area dare complaint about the Orkas. Most villagers are scared of this group that roams habitats just before the monsoons," he said.
The incident takes place amidst a deadly heat wave in Jharkhand with temperatures rising to 116 F (47 C). Residents hope to be relieved by the monsoons, forecasted to arrive the second week of June.
