human saccrifices- how to stop it.

DELHI: A seven-year-old Indian girl has been ritually sacrificed to a Hindu "mother goddess" by two farmers desperate for a bumper harvest.

Lalita Tati was abducted as she left a neighbour's house, where she had been watching television in the remote village of Jailwara in the state of Chhattisgarh, in central India.

A week later her mutilated body was found by her parents close to the village pond. Her heart and liver were missing.

Lalita is believed to have been targeted by the farmers, Ignesh Kujur and Padam Sukku, because they were in a feud with her father, Budhram Tati.

They suspected him of casting black magic spells.

According to villagers, the men cut Lalita's throat and offered her organs to Durga, a Hindu goddess, in the hope that she would bless their harvest.

Local mythology has it that crops will flourish if a sacrificial victim is younger than 12.

The case was initially treated by police as a suspected rape and murder and the girl's father was questioned.

Filled with remorse, however, the farmers wrote to him, allegedly confessing and offering cash in compensation for the loss of his daughter.

A village meeting was called and the police were subsequently informed.

"They have confessed that they cut her body and offered it to the goddess to ensure a good harvest," said Superintendent Rajendra Narayan Das, of the local police.

Das said the police had recovered the suspected murder weapon, adding that money had been found placed by the feet and head of the body, indicating that a sacrifice had been offered.

The men were arrested and are being remanded in custody.

Mr Tati said his family was struggling to come to terms with the crime, which had been committed on October 21 but is only now being reported.

"My daughter was very close to my heart. Her murder shocked us and our whole family has not got over it," he said.

"I want to see these criminals rotting in jail. These men have robbed my whole family."

The practice of human sacrifice extends across several states, to Maharashtra in the west.

The sacrifices normally take place among poor, illiterate tribal people.

In remote rural areas, many maintain a faith in witch doctors and are fearful of curses.

Several cases are reported each year, but more are believed to go undetected.

Subhadra Channa, a professor of anthropology at Delhi University, said the practice was a tradition in India's central belt but that it may now also be fuelled by attempts by big business to take land.

"The tribal people feel really threatened. They are feeling helpless in the face of a big power," she said.