A bizarre case from Punjab's Ludhiana district has left an entire village on edge after a dead goat's head, liquor bottles and sweet boxes turned up on a man's funeral pyre just a day after his cremation. Word of the discovery spread quickly, drawing a large crowd of angry villagers to the cremation ground. Police who rushed to the spot have since detained one man for questioning based on suspicion.
Family arrives to collect ashes, finds pyre littered with strange objects
The incident took place in the village of Leela Megh Singh in Ludhiana's Jagraon area. A 45-year-old resident named Jagdeep Singh had died, and his last rites were performed as usual. Following tradition, his family went to the cremation ground the next day, a Friday, to collect his ashes. What they found there stunned them: the head and skull of a dead goat lying on the pyre, along with empty liquor bottles, boxes of laddoos and other suspicious items scattered around. The family immediately alerted the rest of the village, and within a short time a large number of people had gathered at the site.
CCTV footage shows a car, villagers suspect a tantric ritual
Furious residents decided to get to the bottom of the matter themselves. They pulled up CCTV footage from cameras installed along the road leading to the cremation ground and spotted a car driving up to the site and then leaving. Villagers claimed they were able to identify the vehicle as belonging to a man from their own village. That triggered allegations from several people in the crowd that the objects were linked to some kind of tantric ritual or superstitious practice. The suspicion only inflamed tempers further, and some villagers turned up at the scene carrying sticks.
Police step in, one person taken into custody
As tensions rose, someone alerted the police. SHO Amarjit Singh of the Sidhwan Bet police station reached the spot with his team and brought the situation under control. Acting on the villagers' suspicions and the CCTV footage, police detained one man and began questioning him. However, when officers tried to take him to the police station, the crowd surrounded the police vehicle. The situation stayed tense for a while before officers managed to calm the villagers down and take the detained man away for further questioning.
Villagers demand strict action
Jagdeep Singh's family and other villagers said nothing like this had ever happened at their cremation ground before. They insisted that if the investigation established anyone's involvement, strict legal action should follow. SHO Amarjit Singh confirmed that such an incident had occurred in Leela village and said police were examining the case closely. He added that legal action would be taken once the investigation was complete and the facts had been established. For now, questioning of the detained man continues as police try to determine who left the items on the pyre and why.
