RANCHI: A 32-year-old woman and her two-month-old child were burnt to death by family members, allegedly on suspicion of practicing witchcraft, late Tuesday night in Kalaiya village of Jharkhand's West Singhbhum. The woman's husband suffered severe burn injuries but escaped alive; he reported the incident to the police on Wednesday morning.
40-year-old Kolhan Sinku said that his wife Jyoti Sinku and their children--aged two-years-old and two-months-old--were sleeping at their home when some of his relatives called him out.
"About a dozen men and women were already present in our courtyard. In between, my first wife also arrived. The group started accusing my second wife, Jyoti Sinku, of being a witch,” said Kolhan.
He claimed that he tried to calm the crowd, saying that the matter will be resolved in the Panchayat next morning, but the crowd was not ready to listen. Some persons brought petrol and splashed it on the family, then set them on fire. Jyoti and her newborn were engulfed in flames and died on the spot. Kolhan, however, managed to escape by removing his clothes.
The man then went to a relative's house and informed the police about the incident in the morning.
The police recovered the dead bodies from the spot and admitted Kolhan Sinku to Chaibasa Sadar hospital.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that most of the accused involved in the crime are the family members of Sinku.
West Singhbhum SP Amit Renu informed that four people have already been arrested while the process of identification others is still on.
“We have some of the accused persons identified in the crime and arrested four persons in this regard. Investigation is still on and a team has already been formed,” said the SP.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the matter is related to witch-hunting, he added.