AGRA: In chilling disclosures made by a man who wanted to cure his wife of debilitating mental illness, he told shocked policemen on Thursday that on the "advice" of a tantrik he had already killed four minor girls and was on the lookout to murder three more.

The man, who has been identified as Sonu (he apparently just uses his first name), also revealed to horrified cops that he had raped the four minor girls before killing them. The tantrik had told him that to cure his wife he needed to kill seven minor girls in all.

Incidentally, Sonu is the friend of the man who on Tuesday had been dragged out of a police station in Mathura and lynched by a mob of about 100 men. The dead man has been identified as Lalua Balmiki. The mob had attacked Lalua after accusing him of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.

Police said that Sonu further told him that in his dark deeds it was Lalua who aided him. Sub-inspector Omkar Sharma of Farah police station in Mathura, tasked with guarding Sonu from angry mobs as he recuperates from injuries at the SN Medical College in Agra , said the man had confessed to the murder of the 12-year-old girl whose brutalised body was found in the bushes outside Parkham village early this week.

“A girl about 14 years old was raped and murdered on November 23, 2010. She had arrived in the village for a wedding but never returned to the venue after wandering out. The second was a child, just four years old. She was killed in 2012. Her body, with the head smashed in with a large stone, was recovered in the village. He (Sonu) said the third girl was a nine-year-old. He did not recall the date of that murder,” Omkar Sharma said. The 12-year-old was the fourth victim.

READ ALSO: 'Rapist' tantrik case — Minor girl's father, stepmother arrested

SSP Mathura, Rakesh Singh, admitted that in the three earlier incidents, cases had been registered at the local police station though villagers alleged that these were not the only murders the duo had committed.

A heavily bandaged Sonu, however, told TOI on Thursday evening that he had only asked Lalua to do the killings for him. “I never killed anyone. I have never raped anyone. When I told Lalua of what the tantrik had said, he told me he would finish off the girls for me." But the police are taking this with a pinch of salt. An officer said, "Lalua is already dead, so he can't defend himself. It's easy to foist everything on a dead man."

The 12-year-old whose body was recovered on Tuesday was from the Thakur caste. Since Sonu and Lalua are Dalits, the matter has now taken a caste colour. Most of the men who set upon the duo were from the higher caste.

​READ ALSO: Tantrik burns woman with hot tongs to exorcise her

On Thursday, Sonu’s parents said besides lynching Lalua, the upper caste group had also set their home on fire. “We have been forced out of the village, we have nowhere to go now,” said Shyamlal, Sonu’s father.

BSP leader Achindra Paras, who met Sonu in hospital, said he could understand the anger of those who lost their daughters. However, people cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands, he said, adding, "It is a serious matter that Dalits were lynched and their houses burnt. We will take up the matter with higher authorities."

READ ALSO: 19-year-old raped by tantrik, aide

There has been much tension in the village after the lynching. While the Thakurs protested on railway tracks and halted trains, the Dalits said one of their sons was killed and their houses burnt by upper caste men.

READ ALSO: Grandmom of minor rescued from 'rapist' tantrik nabbed

On Wednesday, police lodged an FIR against 100 unnamed men for dragging Lalua out of police lock-up and lynching him. Four policemen were suspended for laxity at work.

