A 42-year-old woman was beaten to death in Abhanpur allegedly on suspicion that she practiced 'witchcraft', police said on Sunday.
The accused identified as Kalyan Tandon (50) and his wife Madhu (45) were arrested for allegedly murdering Kamla Bai Sahu at Chandi village under Abhanpur police station limits, SHO Abhanpur police station GC Pati said.
The according to the police, Madhu had a miscarriage three years back; however, she was under strong suspicion that the victim Kamla had played some black magic that caused the miscarriage.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the husband of the victim Gorelal Sahu and Kalyan were both working as labourers and were good friends. Their wives often visited each other’s houses, the SHO said.
After Madhu’s first miscarriage three years back, she failed to conceive another child and concluded that Kamla was responsible for it, the SHO said.
On Saturday evening, Kamla had gone to the place of the accused where they had consumed liquor together and an altercation broke out between them over the
issue.
Meanwhile, the couple beat her badly with sticks leading to her death on the spot, the SHO said.
Some locals after the incident informed police and the accused were held, he added.
The accused were booked under Section 302 (murder), other sections of IPC and provisions of Chhattisgarh Witchcraft Atrocities (Prevention) Act 2005, Pati said adding that further probe was on.