Two women beaten to death over witchcraft, police hunt for bodies

VILLAGERS ARE SAID TO HAVE COLLECTIVELY PERPETRATED THE CRIME. ONLY OLD WOMEN AND KIDS WERE FOUND IN THE VILLAGE WHEN POLICE REACHED

DALTONGANJ: An angry mob of villagers allegedly beat two Dalit women to death over suspicion of witchcraft in Palamu district on Sunday and is suspected to have dumped their bodies in the swollen Son River.

The incident occurred at Sahiyara Tola of Badepur village under Hussainabad police station in the early hours of Sunday – a few hours after the villagers had accused the women’s families of practising witchcraft and threatened them with dire consequences, police said.

The victims were identified as Basanti Devi, 41, and Munwa Devi, 36 of Sahiyara Tola, a hamlet inhabited by Scheduled Caste (SC) families. The Palamu police said they were trying to recover the missing bodies.

“Two women were killed and their bodies dumped somewhere. Those who attacked them alleged that they practised black magic,” Palamu superintendent of police Mayur Patel told HT.

“We are trying first to retrieve the missing bodies. The police team has reached the village.”

While the accused people were absconding, the family members of the victims had been hiding in fear of being targeted again, police sources said.

The villagers collectively perpetrated the crime, the sources said. Only old women and children were found in the village when police reached there on Sunday. The police team also found bloodstains near the riverbank, hinting that the bodies might have been thrown into the flooded river to destroy the evidence, the sources said.

Six members of a family were hacked to death over witchcraft in 2006 at Shiva Bigha village, barely 2km from the spot.