A Candle in the Dark

Indian man ’sacrifices’ five-year-old girl for male child

A rural Indian witch doctor beheaded a five-year-old girl as part of a bizarre ritual to help a villager produce healthy male heirs, police said Thursday.

Vandana Kumari was murdered on Tuesday in Lakhimpur Kheri district, 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow, police officer Ravi Srivastava told AFP by telephone.

Occult practitioner Mewalal Chauhan recommended the “human sacrifice” when the child”s neighbour Ram Niwas came to him for help, Srivastava said.