A two-year-old boy, who was illegally confined to be ‘sacrificed’ by a black magic practitioner, was rescued by residents Chandra Nagar in K.S. Layout police limits on Thursday morning. Locals nabbed Sumathindra Rao alias Sumathindra Nadig Rao (54) and handed him to the K.S. Layout police after roundly thrashing him.
According to police, the boy, identified as Vinay, son of Vishwa and Nagarathna, was with his grandmother Rajamma. Vishwa who works as a driver for a BPO, had gone for work while his wife was cooking in the house. Around 10.30 am, Rajamma was putting her grandson to sleep when the accused, who stays in the neighbourhood, came to her and asked her to hand over the boy to him. When Rajamma asked why, Rao is alleged to have told her that he wanted to sacrifice the boy as he dreamt of getting treasure if he did so.
The accused snatched the child from Rajamma even as she was rushing inside the house and locked himself up along with the boy in his house. When Rajamma started crying for help, other neighbours and few women pelted stones at Rao’s house in a bid to break open the door. Rajamma’s relative Srinivas broke open the door and found Rao getting ready for some ritual and trying to strangulate the boy with a red towel. Srinivas assaulted Rao and rescued the boy, police said, based on the statements of Vinay’s grandmother and others. The boy is now doing fine.
Rao, in his statement, denied the allegations and claimed that as he was fond of children, he had taken Vinay to his house and was giving him chocolates. Rao further claimed that he is a priest at Banashankari temple, but this is to be verified, police said. Rao had been staying in the vicinity since the last one year and was often seen playing with children. He had also performed some religious functions at his rented house. He has claimed that he was earlier working as a driver with KSRTC. His first wife Vasanthalakshmi has deserted him and he was staying with his second wife Jayalakshmi, who works as a domestic maid. Rao’s son is said to be employed with KSRTC, police said. Rao has been taken into custody and the charges being probed, the K.S. Layout police said.