In a heinous incident, an elderly woman was allegedly burnt to death by another woman in Khunti district of Jharkhand on the suspicion of the former being a witch, police said on Friday.
The woman believed that the victim’s ‘black magic’ had led to the death of her newly born twins within a fortnight.
Anita Soy of Anantpur village delivered twin girls on November 15. One of them died on December 3 and the other one last night, Superintendent of Police Ashwini Kumar Sinha said.
After the death of one child, the other one was also not keeping well. Anita asked her neighbour, Susari Buru (62), to cure the girl but she too died last night, the police officer said.
Following this, Anita suspected that Buru was a witch and her black magic was responsible for the death of her daughters, Sinha said. Enraged, Anita poured kerosene on Buru and and set her on fire last night leading to her death, the SP said, adding Anita has been detained.
In another incident in West Singhbhum district, a mentally unsound girl was injured after she was beaten up by a ‘witch doctor’ in Raghunathpur village yesterday, police said.
The villagers had taken the 20-year-old girl to the Gram Sabha, where the ‘witch doctor’ assured the villagers that he would cure the girl and started to beat her up badly, they said.
On being informed about the incident, BDO Mukesh Machua rushed to the spot and took the girl to a hospital. Police said they have started an investigation into the incident.
(With inputs from PTI)
