BARIPADA: A tribal woman and her daughter were allegedly attacked by residents of Gadigaon village under Khunta police limits on Monday on the suspicion of practising witchcraft. The victims, Gauramani Murmu (55) and her mother Jaba Hansdah (80), were brutally thrashed by a group of eight people who barged into their house and accused them of practising sorcery killing villagers.
The culprits tied the two women with ropes and threatened to kill them if they didn’t leave the village within a day. After the miscreants left, a neighbour Dularam Hansdah rescued the duo and took them to his house.
Gauramani on Wednesday lodged an FIR at Khunta police station against the eight accused. Basing her complaint, police arrested two persons, Rabi Murmu and Girish Chandra Hansdah of Gadigaon village under Sections 448, 384, 342, 294, 506 and 34 of IPC and 4(I) under the Odisha Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, 2013. Six others Dasarath Naik of Karkachia, Gobinda Hansdah, Debendra Hansdah, Ratan Hansdah, Gangi Hansdah and Basanti Hansdah are on the run.
Investigation officer Soumya Ranjan Bhol said the arrested persons were produced in Udala SDJM court on Wednesday and remanded to judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected. “A manhunt has been launched to nab the remaining six accused who have fled the village after the incident,” said Bhol.