In a gruesome incident, bodies of a woman and her four kids were recovered from a deep well at Indupur under the Koira police station in Sundargarh district late on Saturday night. On Sunday, police arrested three brothers and detained three others, including a sorcerer, in this connection. It is alleged that the woman and her kids were killed on suspicion of practicing black magic.
According to sources, Tangru Munda of Indupur had married Mangli Munda(30) a few years back. Tangru passed away one year ago. They have two daughters and a son, all below age of 12 years. After death of Tangru, his younger brother Sudam had been living with Mangli as her husband. Sudam and Mangli have a 10-month- old daughter. Sudam is a truck driver by profession.
On Friday afternoon when he returned from work, Sudam did not find Mangri and her four children in the house. But he noticed blood stains in his house. He went to Koira police station and lodged a complaint about missing of his family members. The Koira police reached the spot with a scientific team and searched for the missing five. After a day’s search, they located the bodies in an abandoned 20 ft deep well near the house on Saturday. The bodies were recovered with the help of a fire brigade in the presence of DIG Kabita Jalan and Rourkela SP Uma Shankar Das. Post-mortem was conducted on the bodies on Sunday.
During investigation, police could come to know that a local man named Budram was practising sorcery. A daughtger of Sudam’s neighbouring couple Debra and Sumi Munda fell ill some reason. They had taken their daughter to Budram, but later she died.
After few days, another daughter of Debra and Sumi fell ill. This time Budram told them that Mangli and her children are witches and they are responsible for the death and ill health of their daughters. Thereafter, three brothers of Sumi Munda, identified as Kisri alias Raju, Salu and Dagam, planned to kill Mangli and her children. On Thursday night at around 9 pm, when Mangli’s husband Sudam was not present at home, they forcibly entered into Mangli’s house by breaking open the door and hacked Mangli and her four children to death with an axe. They then threw the five bodies in the well.
Police soon detained six persons, including Budram and admitted Debra’s ailing daugther in the Koira hospital. Later on Sunday afternoon, police arrested Raju, Salu and Dagam, the three brothers of Sumi Munda. Police are now interrogating the three others. Police have also seized the axe used in the murder.
“We suspect some more persons are involved in this murder case. We will nab others soon,” said the Rourkela SP.