A farmer couple allegedly decapitated themselves with a guillotine-like device for a sacrificial ritual in India.
Police in Gujarat state’s Rajkot district said on Sunday (16) that Hemubhai Makwana (38) and his wife Hansaben (35) got their head severed with the homemade device at a hut on their farm in the Vinchhiya village.
The couple, believed to be practising black magic, ended their lives between Saturday (15) night and Sunday afternoon when their relatives reported the suicide to the police.
Local police sub-inspector Indrajeetsinh Jadeja said the couple “executed their beheading in such a way that their heads rolled into the fire altar after getting severed.”
"The couple first prepared a fire altar before putting their heads under a guillotine-like mechanism held by a rope. As soon as they released the rope, an iron blade fell on them, severing their heads, which rolled into the fire," Jadeja said.
In a suicide note recovered from the spot, the couple said nobody else was responsible for their action and urged their relatives to take care of their parents and children - aged 12 and 13.
The duo had been offering prayers in their farm hut every day for the past year, Jadeja said.
The police registered a case of ‘accidental death’.
Indian couple behead themselves with guillotine-like device in sacrificial ritual
The couple, believed to be practising black magic, ended their lives between Saturday (15) night and Sunday afternoon when their relatives reported the suicide to the police
An aerial view of the British Steel Scunthorpe site on September 13, 2024. (Photo: Getty Images)