Ghastly act committed after sudden death of boy
In a tragic incident, a tribal was beaten to death mercilessly by fellow villagers suspecting him to be practicing black magic at Bheja village under Kolnara block which is on the JK Pur-K Singhpur road and around 25 km from Rayagada district headquarters town.
Sources said son of Mohan Wataka suddenly died because of some unknown reasons. Mohan and some tribals believed that the cause of death was the black magic propounded by Bhima Rao Wataka. Since the death of Mohan’s son, the villagers started blaming Bhima and threatened him of dire consequences, but the latter kept rubbishing the charge.
On Monday last, when Bhima went to a riverside to attend call of nature, Mohan and his family members along with around 40 to 50 tribal men of the village pounced upon him and dragged him to the village. They tied him with a wooden pillar in the middle of the village and started hitting him with wooden sticks mercilessly. Bhima was crying aloud, telling repeatedly that he was innocent and pleading for mercy but to no avail.
Bheja is a big village of around 300 households. All the villagers were witnessing the incident silently, but nobody came to the rescue of Bhima. The family members of Bhima were stunned and dumbfounded and could not utter even a word out of fear. Bhima could not speak after being thrashed for at least half an hour. When he fell senseless, the unruly tribals opened the knot of the rope with which Bhima was tied. After sometime, Bhima was awake and started running towards the village deity Dharani Penu at the end of the village. The tribals chased Bhima up to the village deity and again started beating him till blood started oozing out from different parts of his body. Finally Bhima succumbed to his injuries. Subsequently, the villagers packed the body of Bhima in a gunny bag and threw it in the Nagabali river.
Though Bheja village comes under Kolnara block, its police station jurisdiction is Kalyan Singhpur. Getting information, the fire brigade from Rayagada scanned the river, but was not able to trace the body till the report was written. The Chandili police were helping the Kalyan Singhpur police in the investigation of the case.