india

Updated: Jul 16, 2019 00:04 IST

In a suspected case of human sacrifice, two women were among three people found murdered on a Shiva temple premises in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district on Monday, two police officers said.

Inspector Madhusudhan said the blood of the three was spattered on a Shivalinga in the temple, which is under construction in place of an existing shrine.

The three were identified as Shivarami Reddy, 75, who manages the temple; his sister, Hanumamma, 70, and Satyalakshmi, 71.

Anantapur police superintendent B Satya Yesu Babu said the murders could have been committed in the blind belief that the murderers would find treasure by making human sacrifices. “They killed the three persons and seemed to have worshipped the god by pouring blood over the Shivalinga . We are also investigating into other angles as well,” he said.

Babu added that they were yet to get any significant breakthroughs.

A devotee, who visited the temple on Monday morning, alerted the police after he found the three in a pool of blood with their throats slit. Two of the bodies were found on cots and another on the ground.

Madhusudhan said the police noticed blood spattered on a Shivalinga in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. “We have registered a case of murder and are investigating the case,” he said.

He said that they were looking into all angles as locals suspected the murders to be a case of human sacrifice as part of sorcery or black magic.

The police suspect that the blood may have been spattered on the Shivalinga to mislead the investigators probing the murders.

Dog squads and forensic teams were pressed into the service as part of the investigations.

Last week, the police in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool found a beheaded body in Nallamala forests in another suspected case of human sacrifice.