Two men have been arrested in India's Uttar Pradesh state for allegedly severing and taking away the head of a corpse from a burning pyre to perform black magic, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place in Piproli Village of the state's Shahjahanpur district on Tuesday when a family performed the last rites for a 60-year-old man Kuber Gangwar, who had a natural death.
Late in the night, a local informed the family that three men had taken the head away from the burning pyre at the cremation ground.
Gangwar's son Vishal lodged a complaint with the police who sprang into action in an attempt to find the accused and recover the head.
On Thursday, the police said that an occultist had told the three accused to steal a skull from a funeral pyre to perform a black magic ritual to make them rich.
"The accused have been identified as Upendra, Surendra Kumar and Manoj, all in their mid-thirties. Although Upendra and Manoj have been arrested in an inebriated state, Surendra is still on the run. They have been booked for trespassing, theft and hurting religious feelings," Additional Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Kumar Bajpai told news agency IANS.