A man has been arrested for allegedly beheading a boy out of superstition for well being of his own ailing children even as his accomplice surrendered before a court in Bihar's Patna district in this connection, a police officer said today.

The accused Tuntun Mahto was arrested from the Badi Pahari village under Agamkuan police station area in Patna district yesterday for beheading 14-year-old Sujit Kumar alias Chotu on June 14, apparently driven by superstition that the sacrifice would cure his three children of ill-health, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said.

The accused has confessed to the crime and narrated the entire sequence of events, he said.

Maharaj said Mahto had beheaded the boy with a sickle on June 14 and threw his severed head in Mushari tola on the same night, hours after discussing his plan over drinks with his friend Palthal Mahto who suggested about the sacrifice.

The weapon of crime has been seized, the SSP said.

After beheading the boy, Mahto threw the head in Mushari tola before fleeing from there, he said adding the severed limbs have been recovered from different places in the same village.

Mahto's friend, after getting whiff that the police was on his trail, surrendered before a court and was sent to judicial remand, Maharaj said.

The SSP said a priest Shrawan Baba, with whom Mahto discussed his desire to sacrifice a human being, has been questioned during which he told the police he had refused any help to the accused saying the temple did not carry out such activities.