When superstition claimed the lives of 2 toddlers, sent shock waves across T.N.

Two toddlers go missing in Veppanthattai village, leading to a shocking human sacrifice case in 1980.

On July 6, 1980, two toddlers — Rajendran, 3 and his best friend Nallusamy, 4, — had left their home to play on the streets of Veppanthattai village in Tiruchi district. They did not return home. It was a routine for the boys to play around the village and return home by evening. But when they did not turn up all night, the parents, after an extensive search in the locality, sensed trouble and lodged a complaint with the Arumbavur police at dawn.

Suspecting a case of child-lifting, the police were inquiring the villagers if they saw any strangers on the day the boys went missing. Searches were also made in nearby water-bodies. Though the missing children were too young to plan an outing, police did not want to rule out the possibility of them reaching the nearest bus stand or railway station. However, nothing much came out of the preliminary investigation in the next two days.

On the third day, a villager raised an alarm after he saw a dog carrying something that appeared to be part of a human leg. The villagers followed the dog that led them to a construction site owned by Velusamy, head master of a primary school. A stench of decomposed body emanated from the site.

The villagers grew suspicious upon seeing partly used incense sticks, flowers and other puja items, and searched the site and its vicinity. Their worst fears came true. The bodies of the two boys with their eyes gouged out and limbs severed were buried in the site. Velusamy and his sister-in-law had offered the boys as a sacrifice to ward off evil spirits.

The chilling human sacrifice led to an uproar in the Assembly that was in session in then Madras.

V. R. Nedunchezhian, the then Leader of the House and Finance Minister, also expressed shock and dismay at the human sacrifice and described it as “shameful”. He assured members of the Assembly that all steps would be taken to trace the culprits. He said the alleged human sacrifice was to get divine blessings for begetting a child. The bodies of the two children were found in the foundation pit of a building being constructed.

“This gory incident showed that the rationalist movement was still to take deep roots in the State,” he told the Assembly.