Police in central India reported a second case of suspected child sacrifice yesterday, casting a spotlight on witchcraft and occult beliefs that persist in some impoverished areas.

Police in the central state of Chhattisgarh said they had arrested 11 people including a “witchdoctor” and his wife after the body of a two-year-old boy was discovered in their house on Wednesday.

Further searches of the ­property in the industrial town of Bhilai, about 45 kilometres from state capital Raipur, revealed the skeletal remains of a second victim, a six-year-old girl.

The accused man had confessed to killing both children to acquire “occult power and good fortune,” police said yesterday, adding that there was a “worship room” in the home.

“The witchdoctor, his family and six other people have been arrested on suspicion of holding human sacrifices,” district police chief Amit Kumar said.

Parents of the two-year-old had alerted authorities after he went missing while playing on the street earlier this week.

The girl is believed to have been abducted nearby in March. Her body was found buried inside the house beneath a trident symbol.

Human sacrifices occasionally make headlines in deeply religious and superstitious India, and usually occur in poor areas where some people revere practitioners of black magic.

The victims are ritually killed by witchdoctors to please or appease gods, spirits or deities.