Kolkata, India - In a bizarre ritual, a group of worshippers exhumed freshly buried bodies, decapitated them and offered the heads to Lord Shiva in a West Bengal village.
In another village in Burdwan district, a group of worshippers in a local festival danced with the blood-soaked head of a child who had died hours earlier.
Police said a group of people exhumed the bodies of a five-year-old boy, a 35-year-old woman and an elderly man from a burial ground on the banks of the Padma river in Jalangi village in Murshidabad district Wednesday and offered their heads to appease Lord Shiva.
The incident came to light after Bharati, the daughter of the old man, Raghupada Das, complained to police that her father's body was exhumed and beheaded for the rituals. Though a Hindu, the man had been buried instead of being cremated.
In the same area, the heads of another five-year-old boy and a 35-year-old woman were severed and used for the same ritual. The boy was identified as Surajit Biswas and the woman as Bimala Mandal, both Hindus.
Meanwhile, at the Gajan festival in Kurmun village of Burdwan district, a crowd of over 1,000 was horrified to witness a procession of a group of worshippers carrying the impaled head of a child whose body was exhumed from a burial ground soon after it was laid to rest.
The head was still blood-soaked.
Police are investigating the incidents though no arrests have been made so far.
Dancing with human skulls is part of a religious tradition in some Bengal villages and a court reprimanded the Ananda Marg religious cult for the practice.