Human sacrifice, blood offerings, greed for gold: Why the 1970s Manwat murders continue to shock

The Supreme Court could not contain its horror when it delivered its final verdict about the brutal murders. It was a “gruesome story”, the judges said, driven by “horrid avarice” and entailed “heartless executions of evil ends”.

The 10 slayings in Manwat, a town in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, in the early 1970s involved human sacrifice, blood offerings to a folk deity and a hunt for long-lost treasure. The faces of some of the victims had been disfigured to prevent their remains being easily identified. Among the dead was a 10-year-old girl, who had been beheaded.

The phantasmagorical quality of the killings, not surprisingly, has attracted the attention of filmmakers over the decades. This extreme instance of occult practice inspired Saravasakhi in 1978 and Akriet in 1981. Next month, a streaming series titled Manvat Murders will revisit the killings from the point of view of the main police investigator. The Sony LIV show, directed by Ashish Bhende, stars Ashutosh Gowariker as the police officer.

In Manwat, when the police finally sent the case to court, the main accused were Rukhmini, a woman from a tribal community, and Uttamrao Barahate, her married upper-caste lover. Rukhmini, who was in her early 30s at the time, was unable to menstruate and bear children. Uttamrao was...

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