Tension prevails in India's southern state of Telangana after the severed head of a man was found placed at the feet of Hindu Goddess Kali's idol at a temple in Nalgonda District on Monday.
The state police have set up eight teams to investigate the matter. They are yet to establish the identity of the man who is missing his hand. His body has not been recovered.
His head, however, was found inside the temple but local police said the man was not murdered there. "The victim was aged between 25 and 35 years and he was killed at some other place," a senior police official told Press Trust of India news agency.
In 2019, during an incident of human sacrifice, three people were found murdered inside a temple in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh state, which neighbours Telangana state.
Similarly, in 2018, in Telangana's Hyderabad District, a severed head of a toddler was found on the terrace of a house. It was later claimed that a couple living in the house had allegedly killed the baby as a black magic human sacrifice ritual – they believed the killing would cure the woman's illness.