Alirajpur, Dec 3 (PTI) A superstitious tribal man allegedly axed his five-year-old son to death believing that the boy was a bad omen for his family in a village in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Friday.

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The incident took place at Kharkhadi village of the district on Thursday afternoon, an official said.

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Dinesh Davar (28) allegedly attacked his son Ram with an axe and cut him into seven pieces, believing that the boy was evil and his presence had cast miseries upon his family, Superintendent of Police Manoj Singh said.

The accused has claimed that his wife was not keeping well and his family was facing hardships, he said.

After killing his son, the accused buried the boy in front of his house, and the village sarpanch saw him and informed the police, the official said.

“We have arrested Davar who told us that he killed Ram after his ‘guru mata' (spiritual mother) said that he was a bad omen for the family," Singh said, adding that efforts are on to arrest the accused's spiritual advisor.

The police were running a campaign to promote literacy, discourage superstition and drinking in the district, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)