A 50-year-old woman was thrashed and paraded naked in Mahesh Litti village under Taljhari police station, 57 kms from district headquarters at Dumka, on Sunday evening. Police registered a case against seven people following the incident.
Santosh Kumar, deputy superintendent of police (DSP), said that Sonalal Kisku (50) from the village had gone to attend a political rally at Dumka on Sunday morning. When the bus ferrying the people returned to the village, he was found dead on his seat. He had died because of physical ailments.
However Manoj Kisku, son of the deceased Sonalal and other relatives, along with some village residents, said that Sonalal was killed because of witchcraft. They accused the wife of the deceased’s elder brother of practising witchcraft. After branding her as a witch, a group of people thrashed the woman, her daughter and daughter-in-law, Kumar said.
The woman was stripped and paraded naked in the village. The accused locked the woman along with her daughter in a room. Both women were rescued after a police team reached the village.
“An FIR was registered under the relevant sections of the IPC and Prevention of Witch-hunting (Dayan Pratha) Act 2001, against seven accused, including Manoj Kisku, as per the statement of the victim. We are identifying the other accused in the case. They will be arrested soon,” said Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}“An FIR was registered under the relevant sections of the IPC and Prevention of Witch-hunting (Dayan Pratha) Act 2001, against seven accused, including Manoj Kisku, as per the statement of the victim. We are identifying the other accused in the case. They will be arrested soon,” said Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}As per police records, Dumka saw 11 witch hunt murders in 2014, along with one incident each in 2016 and 2017. Kalyani Sharan, chairperson of the state women’s commission said that superstition and lack of education resulted in such incidents, mostly in impoverished regions of the state.