‘Sorcerer’ sentenced to death in India for decapitating a baby and drinking its blood in occult ritual

An Indian man has been sentenced to death after decapitating a baby and drinking the child’s blood.

The incident took place two years ago during an occult ritual in Kalakuri village in Bankura, West Bengal, Indian media reports.

Lakshmi Kanta Sarkar was found in a graveyard by a makeshift temple ‘drinking blood from the severed head of a baby hanging in a tree’ by a group of villagers.

The villagers beat the ‘sorcerer’ so badly police had to intervene to avoid a lynching, The Times of India reported upon his arrest.

Sarkar has now been sentenced to death after 17 witnesses testified against him at Sulagna Dastidar district court in Bankura.

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The man, highlighted here in an Indian TV news report, was discovered by villagers as he carried out the horrible act

‘Sarkar was convicted and a fast track court considered the case to be the rarest of the rare and awarded him the death penalty Monday,’ public prosecutor AK Chattopadhyay said in a press conference.

Although cannibalism and ‘blood sacrifice; in the name of sorcery is extremely rare, there have been similar cases in India in recent years.

Last year, a man killed his eight-month-old child as a sacrifice to Goddess Kali in state of Uttar Pradesh, local media reported.

In another area of India, a seven-year-old was murdered so her liver could be offered as a sacrifice to the gods ‘in exchange for a fertile crop’.

Sarkar was reported to have been a self-taught ‘tantrik’, a practitioner of Hindu spiritual studies which are often associated with black magic.

According to reports at the time of his arrest, Sarkar was well known in the village as a backstreet abortionist who practiced ‘black magic’ with his mother.

It has not been confirmed how and when his execution will take place.