KOCHI: A police station hosting a ‘sorcery session’ to get a confession from an accused in a murder case! That is exactly what happened at the Kothamangalam police station as part of the probe into the death of a six-year-old girl.
In a sorcery-like session held at the Kothamangalam police station on Friday, the girl’s stepmother, Aneesha, 23, a native of Uttar Pradesh, confessed to murdering the child.
Following the confession, which was video-recorded, police arrested the woman, who is five-month pregnant, for allegedly smothering her stepdaughter, Muskhan, to death at their rented house at Iramalloor late on Wednesday.
The girl was found lying motionless on her bed on Thursday morning, and was later confirmed dead at the hospital. The postmortem report revealed that Muskhan was smothered to death. Later, police took her father, Ajaz Khan, 32, and Aneesha into custody.
Muskhan’s mother separated from Ajaz, a carpenter, two years back, following which he married Aneesha. This was also the second marriage of Aneesha. She has a child from her first marriage, who stays with them in Iramalloor. During interrogation, Aneesha claimed that she does not remember how the child was killed as the act was done by “an evil spirit inside her”.
Ajaz told police that Aneesha often turned hysterical and that she was treated by a sorcerer, Noushad, who is also from Iramalloor.
Ernakulam Rural Police Chief Vaibhav Saxena, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was at the police station to help the probe team as the accused spoke only Hindi.
“The SP realised that the accused was trying to deceive them by placing the entire blame on ‘evil spirits’. So the investigation team decided to bring Noushad to the station. Noushad admitted that Ajaz and Aneesha visited him twice,” said a police officer.
“As instructed by the officers, Noushad performed sorcery at the station. He recited some prayers and sprinkled water on Aneesha’s face. Soon, Aneesha became hysterical and her voice tone changed. The woman then revealed how she killed the girl,” the officer said.
After the ‘rituals’, Aneesha claimed that the demon left her body. The police then showed her the video. Following this, she confessed to committing the crime.
Child’s death: Separate case to be registered
Vaibhav said the sorcery method was adopted as the woman was trying to conceal the truth by blaming evil spirits. “We could not put her under any pressure as she was pregnant. It is not that we used sorcery to solve the case. We found that she was trying to dupe us.
We used it to make her reveal the truth. She strongly believed that there was an evil devil inside her,” Vaibhav said.
According to Vaibhav, after Aneesha’s confession, police could confirm that neither Ajaz nor Noushad was involved in the crime. “We had collected strong evidence in the case even before Noushad performed the ritual. However, after Aneesha’s confession, we could rule out the involvement of Ajaz and Noushad in the case,” he said.
Aneesha was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.
Police have also decided to register a separate case against Noushad under the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act. “The investigation revealed that Noushad had been doing sorcery for the past several years. We have found photographs of several persons treated by him. We are tracking these people and their statements will be recorded,” Vaibhav said.