Lucknow, India - A MAN in a north Indian state killed his four-year-old son after he started seeing visions of the Hindus goddess Kali demanding a sacrifice.
"The goddess appeared before me and commanded me to offer either myself or my son," the 28-year-old barber, identified only as Pramod, told police after slitting the boy's throat with a razor on the outskirts of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state today.
"I chose my son because if I had died then the rest of my family would suffer," he said.
The man's wife, Kusum, said her husband had developed a split personality after being given a "potion" by a relative during a family property dispute.
"Subsequently, he started visiting a tantrik (black magic practitioner)," she said. Pramod told police the tantrik had assured him that the row over property would be solved if he were to offer a human sacrifice.
"Thereafter I could repeatedly see Goddess Kali appearing before me and asking for the sacrifice – which I ultimately offered," he said.
Kali is considered the destroyer of evil in the Hindu pantheon.
Police superintendent Ashutosh Pandey said officers were wary of the claims. "We do not rule out the possibility that the killing was done because Pramod suspected the boy had been fathered by another man."