In a shocking incident, a tribal couple of Saharpur under Banspal block in Keonjhar district were killed by a group of co-villagers on Thursday night suspecting that they were practising witchcraft.
While one Rajendra Dehury (40) was having dinner with his wife Jema, younger sister Chandani and elder sister Boita Naik, a group of 12 villagers entered their house and asked Rajendra to cure a disease being suffered by one Budhia Penthei. When Rajendra expressed his inability, the villagers attacked him and chopped his head away from body with an axe. They also killed Jema as she came to rescue her husband. Their three children and two sisters managed to escape from the spot to the Banspal police station and informed the police about the matter.
The police have arrested six of the 12 accused and are searching for the rest.The arrested told the police that Rajendra was practising witchcraft for which people in the village were suffering from various ailments. Rajendra was also cautioned at a village meeting against his witchcraft practice a month back. As he didn’t refrain, they killed him.
Nayakote IIC and Keonjhar ASP reached the spot on Friday morning and sent the bodies for postmortem. A murder case has been registered against Basant Dehury, Goutam Penthei, Mitu Mallik, Panchu Mallik, Krushna Dehury, Dina Mallik, Tura pradhan and others.