A man, his wife and their daughter were found murdered in Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur district, police said on Friday.
Senior police officials said that witchcraft could be the reason behind the killing but they are investigating the case from all angles. Police said that they have also detained three people and quizzing is going on.
“The bodies were found in Kadamtoli village on Thursday and the deceased have been identified as Arjun Tendua (43), his wife Firni Tendua (40) and daughter Sanjana (19),” said superintendent of police (SP), Jashpur, D Ravishankar.
The officer further said that the victims were killed with sharp-edged weapons inside their house and therefore police are suspecting that the accused was known to the family.
“The locals have given statements that the family has been engaged in witchcraft for a long time. People used to fear the family because they believed that they had some supernatural powers. We have a lead that a person from the village was upset with the victims over some witchcraft issues. We have detained a few people and investigation is going on,” said the SP.
A case of murder has been registered and all efforts are being made to solve the crime, he added.
{{/usCountry}}A case of murder has been registered and all efforts are being made to solve the crime, he added.
{{/usCountry}}“The reason behind the killing is yet to be ascertained. On Friday, police found that the man was also having a land dispute on which another team is working,” added the SP.
In August, two people fell prey to black magic in Chhattisgarh after a 17-year-old boy allegedly killed his parents in connivance with his relatives in Jashpur district, offering them as sacrifice at the behest of a ‘tantric’ (shaman) to cure his mentally-ill elder brother.
Witchcraft cases are mostly reported in Central and Eastern rural parts of India, including Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Dr Dinesh Mishra, an activist who filed an RTI on the witchcraft cases in Chhattisgarh, claimed that between 2006 and 2017 , a total of 1,357 cases were reported in Chhattisgarh mainly in Jashpur, Janjgir-Champa and Koriya districts.