A nine-year-old girl was found dead on Wednesday night at a village in Malda district and the local residents suspected that she was murdered by a local youth who practises sorcery.

Residents of the village have caught hold of the accused youth and have assaulted him. He has been rescued by police and is now under treatment at a hospital.

Sources said Chumki Basak, who was a Class II student at a local school, went missing on Wednesday from her home in Gourhanda village that is under Chanchal police station of the district.

Chumki’s family members and neighbours started searching for her and found her body near a local pond at night. They found that her throat had been slit and there were some other injury marks on her body.

After recovering her body, the villagers suspected that Bikram Bhagat, a local youth, has murdered the girl. Bikram, locals said, practises sorcery and around four years back, he had tried to murder a child of the village but the villagers had somehow rescued the child.

They had even warned Bikram to refrain from such attempts. As a group of villagers approached Bikram on Wednesday, he tried to escape from his home but was eventually nabbed. The villagers then interrogated him and Bikram, they claimed, admitted that he had killed the girl as a part of “a ritual.”

This left the villagers irate. They ransacked his house and started beating him.

Meanwhile, the police were informed and a team led by Subhendu Mondal, the sub-divisional police officer of Chanchal and Purnendu Kundu, the inspector-in-charge of Chanchal police station, reached the village. They rescued Bikram and rushed him to the hospital

Later, Amali, the victim’s mother, filed a complaint with the police. Police have registered a case.

A source said Sunil, Chumki’s father, is a migrant worker and serves in Bihar. He has returned home after the incident. The couple has two sons and a daughter.

“We want exemplary punishment of Bikram. He has killed my daughter in the pretext of sorcery,” said the bereaved mother.