Four arrested for practicing black magic in Southern India

A bizarre incident of superstition surfaced in Southern India, the Andhra Pradesh police have arrested four men for allegedly practicing black magic in the Musunuru Mandal of the Nuziveedu constituency.

These four persons were caught practicing occult worship and black magic at midnight for excavating hidden treasures in Pedapativarigudem village, Sub Inspector (SI) Kutumba Rao informed.

The incident is reported from the suburb of the Gopavaram village in Musunuru Mandal.

One of the farmers in this village, Boda Rajesh was seen performing an occult puja and excavation in his lemon grove on Friday midnight to obtain treasures.

The villagers said that all four persons were together in the lemon orchard, and when they tried to get a hold of them while Boda Rajesh was digging, they allegedly escaped their catch.

The villagers have demanded strict action against those practicing black magic, occult worship, and digging for hidden treasures.

The case has come days after the Kerala police have been investigating the Kerala human sacrifice case where two women were brutally killed in the name of a ritual after being lured for money.

The process of evidence collection in the Kochi case has "almost completed" and the police added that they rely on cyber evidence as it was important in this case.

The police remand report of the accused mentions the shocking "human sacrifices" were suspected to have been committed as part of a ritual to obtain financial benefits, where the remains of the two deceased women--identified as Padma and Roslin-- were exhumed later from pits near the residence of accused Bhagaval Singh and Laila in the Pathanamthitta district.

According to police, the accused allegedly lured the victims with the promise of money. The remand report stated that the accused allegedly chopped up the bodies of the victims before burying them.

The police have also seized several phones from the accused. The Commissioner also asserted that the main accused used to mutilate the bodies in a butcher's style.

As per the reports, the police have found 39 grams of gold that belonged to victim Padma mortgaged by Shafi for Rs 1 lakhs out of which he gave Rs 40,000 to his wife.

As per the police remand report, the accused husband-wife pair of Bhagaval Singh and Laila conspired with the "prime accused" Muhammed Shafi to commit the crimes.

On September 26, Shafi approached the 52-year-old Padma, who used to sell lottery tickets in Kochi and lured her by offering Rs 15,000 for sex work, the police remand report read.

"Then she agreed and went with Shafi to the home of Bhagaval Singh and Laila in the Pathanamthitta district. There, the accused strangled her with a plastic cord around her neck to make her unconscious. After that, Shafi mutilated Padma's private parts using a knife and slit her throat. After that, they chopped her into 56 pieces and put the mutilated body parts into buckets and buried them in a pit," the report detailed.

Police said that it is investigating the possibility of cannibalism that the accused possibly ate the flesh of the victims.

Kochi Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju addressing a press conference told reporters that Shafi, the main accused, was a pervert and has a criminal past.