//Hindu Priests arrested for cannibalism

Hindu Priests arrested for cannibalism

From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Lucknow

April 10, 2006
TWO Hindu priests were arrested on charges of eating vital organs from the corpse of a child in the belief they would gain supernatural powers, Indian police said today.


Villagers alerted police yesterday after finding the head of an 18-month-old infant they had buried three days previously.

Brijvasi Mishra, aged 53, and his student Vishal Misra, 23, were caught in northern Uttar Pradesh state's Jaunpur district.

The priests follow an ancient Hindu cult which once permitted cannibalism and the use of human corpses in various rituals. It was first banned in the 18th century when India was a British colony.