At least four elderly members of the tribal community, including a couple, were dragged out of their houses and beaten to death by an enraged mob on charges of practicing witchcraft in the interiors of Jharkhand’s Gumla district, about 100 Kilometers west of capital Ranchi, in the wee hours of Sunday.
“Prima facie, it seems that they were killed on the suspicion of practicing witchcraft. The four victims were dragged out of their houses and taken to the village’s Akhra, where they were beaten to death at around 3.30 am on Sunday,” said Gumla’s Superintendent of Police, Anjani Kumar Jha.
Akhra is a meeting point, usually at the centre of a tribal village, where villagers hold regular meetings to address social issues and organise events for entertainment.
The fact that the perpetrators chose the Akhra for executing the crime indicates that some of the locals might be behind the act, police sources said. It also indicates that the perpetrators wanted to project the crime as an act done for safety of the villagers,
they added. The police recovered bloodstained batons from the spot. The incident occurred at Piskari village in Sisai block. The tribal-dominated village, police said, is at least 15 Kilometers away from the Sisai Police Station.