PARLAKHEMUNDI: At least seven persons of Chudangapur village here were arrested by Adaba police for allegedly assaulting two persons before setting them on fire, suspecting them of practising sorcery, on Tuesday.
The accused are Ganga Sabar, Sudhir Raita, J Gomango, Rabindra Raita, Suman Raita, Rajiv Raita and Bali Paika. They had allegedly killed two residents of their village, Ganga Gomanga (45) and Biranchi Sundaray (48), suspecting them of practising black magic.
Last month, Pitar Gomang of the village had died of unknown disease. Suspecting the death due to black magic, a group of villagers consulted a sorcerer, who accused Ganga and Biranchi of killing Pitar and three others of the village through sorcery. Later, the villagers conducted a meeting and decided to socially boycott the two persons and their families.
Unable to bear the boycott, Ganga had left his house on August 8 and lodged a complaint with Mohana Police the next day. He later stayed put in his daughter Sudani’s house at Panda Colony in Mohana town.
Receiving information about the police complaint, a group of Chudangapur villagers reached Sudani’s house and asked Ganga to accompany them to the village to attend a meeting on Monday evening.
Similarly, they asked Biranchi to attend the meeting, where the villagers imposed a fine of `five lakh each on both of them for informing police about the social boycott. As Biranchi and Ganga expressed their inability to pay the fine, the villagers dragged them to the nearby forest and assaulted them. When the two fell unconscious, they burnt their bodies.
The villagers later raided houses of the two and ransacked them besides looting cash, motorcycles and mobile phones.
Following the incident, Ganga’s brother, Kanja, filed a police complaint against the seven villagers. The accused will be forwarded to court on Wednesday.
In May last year, two persons of Amily village under the same police limits were killed by co-villagers for similar reasons.