A 60-year-old tribal was murdered on suspicion of sorcery in Bodamasingh village under Garabandha police station at the foothill of Mahendragiri in Gajapati district. Two youths were arrested in the connection and the body was seized after 36 hours of the crime.
While the deceased was identified as Gopal Sabara, the assailants were GangadharaBhuyan and Narayana Sabara. Police forwarded them to court.
According to sources, prime accused Gangadhara’s father had been ill for some days and was not responding to any treatment. Gangadhara suspected it to be the spell of a sorcerer and he took the help of his friend Narayana to take revenge on Gopal whom they suspected to have been behind the protracted illness of Gangadhara’s father.
Both Gangadhara and Narayana forcibly took Gopal from his house to an unknown location and kept him in a room, where they tied his hands and assaulted him brutally till death. later, they hid the body and went underground to evade police action.
However, deceased Gopal’s son Madhu Sabara, somehow, came to know about the incident and informed police. He lodged an FIR at Garabandha Police Station in this connection on October 12 last.
Police rushed to the spot and recovered the body. Both Gangadhara and Narayana admitted to have committed the crime. The police also sent the body to the District Headquarters Hospital at Parlakhemundi for post mortem and later, handed the body over to the kin.