An FIR has been registered, and five individuals were taken into custody for reportedly exhuming a human body and using its parts in a ritual in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district.

The incident took place on June 6 during the Kodai festival of the Sudalaimada Swamy temple in Veeravanallur. As part of a late-night ritual known as Samakottai Vettai, the five men, reportedly in a trance-like state, allegedly went to a nearby crematorium, retrieving body parts from a half-burnt corpse, then proceeded to perform a ritualistic dance as an offering to a village deity.

According to police sources, however, the accused, reportedly monks, dug up the body and used the skull and other body parts during a ritual performed yesterday. A disturbing video of the ritual, showing the monks dancing with the remains, has surfaced online.

The video shows the monks raising machetes, holding the body parts, and dancing, as several villagers watch them.

Tirunelveli police said such practices, though claimed to be part of religious rituals, are illegal. “These monks go to graveyards, dig up human bodies, and use parts like hand and leg for their rituals. This is not correct. So we have registered an FIR,” a police officer said.

The FIR has been registered under four sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023: Section 270 (public nuisance), BNS 272 (malignant act likely to spread infection), BNS 301 (trespassing in burial places), and Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act.