GORAKHPUR, Aug. 3 -- Deoria police on Saturday arrested four individuals for their involvement in the murder of a nine-year-old boy on April 16 this year as part of an alleged sacrificial ritual at Deoria's Patkhauli village to 'cure ailments of one of the accused', said circle officer, Barhaj town, Anshuman Srivastava. As per the police, the victim Arush Gaur, a Class 2 student, went missing on April 16 evening while playing and the matter was reported to the police the next day. The subsequent probe led to the arrest of Inderjeet (a police constable posted in Gonda), Rama Shankar (his maternal uncle), Bheem Gaur and Jai Prakash, all residents of Patkhauli village under Bhulawani police station limits. Inderjeet, believed to be mentally unstable, allegedly hatched the conspiracy under the influence of his uncle Rama Shankar who claimed that the sacrifice of an innocent child would help cure Inderjeet's ailments. Police officials said after performing 'religious rituals' in an orchard, the accused slit the boy's throat and initially buried the body. However, in an attempt to mislead investigators, they later disinterred the body and threw it into the Ghaghara river. The breakthrough in the case came after Arush's uncle Somnath, filed a writ petition in the Allahabad high court, which directed the Deoria police to submit an action-taken report. Following this directive, police intensified the investigation, leading to the recovery of crucial evidence. Soil samples were collected from the orchard where the body was initially buried and DNA tests confirmed the presence of human remains. The accused later confessed to their involvement in the crime during interrogation....