NK Singh, Inspector, Saraiyahat Police Station. ANI
New Delhi: Four members of family, including three women, were forced to consume human excreta over allegations that they practised witchcraft in Aswari village of Jharkhand’s Dumka district.
Dumka SP A Lakra said police have arrested six people who reside in the same village as the victims.
“There are undercurrents of property dispute or illnesses in the incident. However, the motive is yet to be ascertained,” the Indian Express report quoted the SP as saying.
NK Singh, Inspector, Saraiyahat Police Station said the victims were also tortured with a hot iron rod.
He said that the victims were admitted to Saraiyahat Community Health Centre and later shifted to Deoghar for further treatment.
“Three women were brutally thrashed. After this, human excreta and urine were forcibly put in their mouths,” Singh added.
Saryahat Police Station in-charge Vinay Kumar said that the inhuman torture of the four people started on Saturday night and continued till Sunday.
“Some villagers first thrashed them after branding them witches,” he added.
After receiving information about the incident, a police team went to the village on Sunday and rescued the victims.
Police said further investigation in the case is on.
Torture on suspicion of witchcraft is a predominant social evil in the state. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 590 people, mostly women, were killed over this period between 2001 and 2020.
With inputs from agencies
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