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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court recently upheld the conviction of a man for stabbing an 11-month-old infant to death in broad daylight as a 'human sacrifice'.

The bench of Justices Rajiv Gupta and Mohd. Azhar Husain Idrisi said that the instant case was a classic case of blind faith and these are 'unfortunate realities' of our times still prevalent in remote areas.

While noting that human//child sacrifice has been practiced in many different cultures and is supposed to bring good fortune, the division bench said, "...in our opinion, (it) shocks the conscience of the civilized society and is to be condemned by one and all, to curb such social evils".

Court pointed out that in the present case, the FIR had been promptly lodged and the manner and place of incident had been cogently and unerringly established by the prosecution before the trial court. 

Further, it noted that nature of injury as pointed out by the Doctor in the post-mortem report of the deceased infant, clearly indicates that it could have been caused by the knife or a 'summi', a pointed object alike a knife as had been alleged by the prosecution. 

Moreover, court highlighted that the identity of the accused was not in dispute and he had been correctly identified by all the witnesses. 

"The testimony of all the four eye-witnesses, except minor contradictions, do not suffer from any shortcomings to doubt their credibility. Their presence at the scene of incident is quite natural and being a broad day light incident has been witnessed by them," court underscored while concluding that the judgment and order passed by the trial court  well considered.

"the trial court has rightly held that the prosecution has succeeded to prove the guilt of the accusedappellant beyond reasonable doubt, as such, the impugned judgment and order passed by the trial court is liable to be upheld and the appeal has no force and it is, accordingly, liable to dismissed," the division bench ruled. 

An appeal had been filed by one Rajendra Prasad Gaur, who had been convicted for the offence under Sections 302 IPC and awarded the sentence of life imprisonment with a fine of Rs.5,000 by the trial court in 2004. 

According to the prosecution, the incident occurred while the parents of the infant were having a meal at a location in Sonbhadra district where a fair was held during Navratra, involving practices of exorcism and distribution of 'Bhabooti' by a priest. Suddenly, the accused grabbed the nearby playing infant and stabbed him repeatedly in front of a large crowd before fleeing. Subsequently, many people present at the fair informed the deceased infant's father that it was a case of human/child sacrifice.

Case Title: Rajendra Prasad Gaur v. State of UP