Police reported that a 27-year-old woman from Shahjahanpur who was involved with another woman she met in college was allegedly killed by a local Tantric or occultist in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district on Tuesday. According to authorities, Ram Niwas, a Tantric (Occultist) attracted Poonam Kumari, a resident of Shahjahanpur, with the promise of changing her gender.
According to Sudhir Jaiswal, the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) city of Shahjahanpur, Kumari and her 25-year-old companion, Preeti Sagar, were in a relationship for a few months and lived in Lakhimpur Kheri. They met while earning bachelor’s degrees in education. He said, “The Lakhimpur Kheri woman’s refusal to get married to a guy despite her family’s numerous efforts revealed her relationship status and aroused criticism from both families who dreaded societal disgrace.”
Sagar has been summoned by police under several charges, including murder and criminal conspiracy. Amber Singh, the in-charge of the Mohammadi police station in Lakhimpur Kheri, claimed that the occultist was in contact with Kumari’s mother and advised her that changing her gender could facilitate their union.
He claimed that on April 18, Kumari, who lived around 50 km distant from Lakhimpur Kheri, was summoned for the supposed rituals and left her home. On April 26, her brother Parvinder Kumar filed a missing person’s report.
According to Jaiswal, “The police learned about Preeti Sagar when they checked the victim’s call records and found they had both been talking on the phone for extended periods of time.”
Police have taken the occultist to jail. He admitted to strangling Kumari under the pretence of executing a ritual to change her gender after calling her at a remote location.
The ASP claimed that Niwas escaped after leaving the body on the banks of the Gomti in a wooded location. Near Sagar’s home, the police found 11 bones, which they have sent for forensic analysis. In the FIR, Kumar claimed that his sister had been murdered by Sagar, Urmila, and Niwas.
According to a police source, the FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 201 (concealing a body after a crime), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), and 302 (murder).
