RAIPUR — An Indian “witch doctor” who beheaded an 11-year-old boy and offered the head as a sacrifice to a deity to improve his fortunes has been sentenced to death, police said Tuesday.



A local court in impoverished Chhattisgarh state in central India convicted 32-year-old Dilip Rathia on Monday of murder and sentenced him to hang for beheading the boy, police said.



“We proved the man beheaded the boy and his head was offered to the local deity to obtain better luck,” investigating officer Praful Thakur told AFP by telephone.



Forensic tests proved the skeleton was that of an 11-year-old boy named Praveen who disappeared in February 2012 while visiting a village fair, Thakur said.



Human sacrifices in deeply religious and superstitious India usually occur in poorer areas where some people fear and revere practitioners of so-called black magic. The victims are ritually killed by witch doctors to please or appease deities. — AFP