A 32 years old witch doctor, by name Dilip Rathia, who beheaded a 11 years old Praveen and offered the head as a sacrifice to a goddess to improve his fortune has been sentenced to death by hanging by a local court in impoverished Chhattisgarh state in central India.
The case, which highlights the persistence of occult beliefs in remote areas came to light when police found the child's headless skeleton in the tribal dominated village of Barpali in Raigarh district.
Forensic tests proved the skeleton was that of 11 years old boy who disappeared in February 2012 while visiting a village fair. Acting on a tip-off, police raided the home of a man said to be a witch doctor by locals and there they found the child's head.
Human sacrifices in deeply religious and superstitious India usually occur in poorer areas where some people fear and revere practitioners of black magic.