BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, July 6, 2001: An Indian appeals court has upheld the death sentences of four people convicted of killing a 7-year-old boy as a religious sacrifice. Ranjit Mohanty was kidnapped from his parents’ home near the Orissa state capital of Bhubaneshwar, and murdered in 1997. His killers allegedly confessed during questioning by police. “This type of heinous crime can only be checked through a heavy punishment like the death penalty,” High Court Justices B.P. Das and M. Pappana said Thursday. The defendants — Kalpana Majumdar, Narayan Majumdar, Kunja Rabana and Subhash Chandra Panda — allegedly told police they killed the boy after a person who practices black magic told them they would be divinely rewarded with gold. The four defendants were sentenced to death by Judge Ananta Charan Patnaik in July.
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