Two people have been arrested for allegedly performing an occult ritual using a human skull taken from a cremation pyre in Azrada village in Meerut district, officials said on Sunday

A third accused managed to escape, they added.

According to police, villagers caught two men on Friday night while they were allegedly performing a tantric ritual at a cremation ground, where the pyre had recently burned. One of their accomplices fled the spot.

Upon being informed, police reached the scene and arrested the duo, identified as Baljeet and Imran.

Police also seized several items used in the alleged ritual.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Abhijeet Kumar said that during preliminary interrogation, both men admitted to performing the occult ritual. A case has been registered against them under Sections 301 (trespass in burial places), 299 (hurting religious sentiments), and 196 (promoting enmity between groups) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the officer added.

Mundali Station House Officer (SHO) Ram Gopal Singh told PTI that villagers had alerted police after spotting the men removing a skull from the recently burned pyre and placing rice, lemons, incense sticks, and a liquor bottle nearby as part of their ritual. The pyre was that of a Dalit youth named Gajendra, who had been killed in Delhi and whose body was cremated in the village earlier that day (on Friday), officials stated.

The SHO added that the two arrested accused have been remanded to judicial custody, while efforts are on to trace the absconding suspect, identified as Shaukeen.

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