[Inspector
Jagat Bhandu Pokharel of the Beltari area police, who originally handled the
case before it was transferred to the district police, said that Mr. Chamar’s
father, Kodai Chamar, had confessed to the crime.]
By
Bhadra Sharma and Nida Najar
The
boy, Jivan Kohar, 10, had been missing since Tuesday, the same day that a
neighbor hosted a gathering of villagers in which he said that his own son was
ill, possessed by evil spirits, and would need a human sacrifice.
“Nobody
took him seriously,” said Ram Baran Kohar, Jivan’s paternal grandfather, who
was at the gathering.
Jivan’s
body was discovered Friday.
The
police in the Nawalparasi District, which includes Kudiya, said Sunday that 11
people had been arrested in the boy’s death, including Bijay Chamar, 18, the
son who had fallen ill, and members of his family.
Inspector
Jagat Bhandu Pokharel of the Beltari area police, who originally handled the
case before it was transferred to the district police, said that Mr. Chamar’s
father, Kodai Chamar, had confessed to the crime.
“People
mainly from remote parts of the country have superstitious beliefs,” said
Inspector Pokharel. Yet he said he had never seen anything like “this kind of
human sacrifice.”
The
superintendent of police for the Nawalparasi District, Nal Prasad Upadhyay, said
that the investigation was continuing and that the suspects would be examined
to determine whether they were “mentally fit.”
Relatives
of Jivan returned from the fields on Tuesday evening to find that he had
vanished. The parents, having learned of the gathering that took place earlier
that day, immediately confronted the Chamars, said Mr. Kohar, the grandfather.
“They
denied it,” he said. “We could not blame them without proof.”
Jivan’s
mother was too ill to speak, and Lal Bahadur Kohar, an uncle of the boy, said
that he had been unable to eat.