Couple decapitates themselves with homemade guillotine as part of ritual sacrifice
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GUJARAT, INDIA: A couple from India decapitated themselves over the weekend using a makeshift guillotine that was set up in a way that their severed heads fell into a fire altar as a form of human sacrifice, according to officials. The couple, identified as Hemubhai Makwana, 38, and his wife Hansaben Makwana, 35, committed the gruesome act in the village of Vinchiya, located in the Rajkot district of the western state of Gujarat.
According to the Vinchhiya Police sub-inspector Indrajeetsinh Jadeja, the couple was engaged in a sacrificial "ritual." "The couple first prepared a fire altar before putting their heads under a guillotine-like mechanism held by a rope," Jadeja said, as per the Hindustan Times. "As soon as they released the rope, an iron blade fell on them, severing their heads, which rolled into the fire," he added.
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Couple's young children found their headless bodies
The couple's headless bodies were discovered by their 12 and 13 year old children, upon returning home from a visit to their uncle's village nearby. The parents had sent them there the day before the incident. Authorities found a suicide note written in Gujarati, stating that the couple had willingly taken their own lives and that no one else was responsible for their deaths, Times of India reports. The couple's suicide note reportedly contained an appeal to their family members to take care of their elderly parents and their two children, who were now orphaned.
Hinduism regards fire as a sacred element and it holds a significant role in various worship rituals. Jadeja stated that the authorities are currently interviewing family members and investigating whether the decapitations were part of a black magic ceremony. The couple had reportedly been performing daily worship to Shiva, a prominent Hindu deity, at an impromptu temple on their land for a year prior to the incident.
According to Hansaben's cousin Jayanti Jatapara, the couple did not appear to be experiencing any financial or relationship difficulties before their tragic deaths. The incident is currently being investigated as an accidental death, and the bodies of the victims have been sent to a coroner's office for an autopsy.
Ritual sacrifices are carried out to please deities
Between 2014 and 2021, India's National Crime Records Bureau documented 103 cases of human sacrifice in the country, reports The Guardian. These ritualistic killings are typically carried out to please deities and are less frequent in urban areas. Sacrifices are more prevalent in tribal and remote areas of India, where belief in the occult and witchcraft is still widespread. However, it is rare for the victims to be the ones who commit the sacrifice themselves. In contrast, most cases involve people killing others.