Guwahati: A toddler, who was allegedly set to be sacrificed by a family in Assam's Udalguri district on Saturday, was saved by a police team which rushed to the spot and opened fire at two family members to disarm them.
Police said that the incident took place at the district's Kushalipara village, where Jadav Saharia and his family members, probably driven by some kind of superstition, attempted to sacrifice the three-year-old girl.
According to the information, Saharia is a science teacher by profession, his wife a medical nurse and son an MBA graduate from Bangalore.
Some villagers first got an inkling of the human sacrifice attempt when they heard chanting of hymns from the house of Saharias and saw most of the family members taking part in the religious ceremony in nude.
"We wanted to intervene and stop them from doing what they were doing. But, they tried to attack us with some weapons, following which we informed the police. However, they refused the police entry into their house and attacked them as well," said a local resident, adding that finally, the police had to shoot Saharia and his son on their legs to disarm them and rescue the child.
The bizarre incident continued for over four hours until police fired and saved the minor girl, police said.
"It seems the entire family is mentally disturbed. Who will strip in the open in a residential area? Saharia's daughter had committed suicide earlier and perhaps, the members of the family developed a psychiatric problem after that incident," Udalguri District Magistrate Dilip Kumar Das said, adding that police have registered a case and investigation is on.
He said that there were a total of eight persons, including the minor girl's parents, who were relatives of the Saharias, at the ceremony.
The accused Saharia and his son have been hospitalised in Guwahati Medical College and also taken under police custody.
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