BERHAMPUR: The video of a woman being beaten up with shoes in a moving train by a co-passenger over suspicion of practising sorcery has gone viral. Sources said the victim, identified as Archana Mishra, was travelling from her parents’s place in Berhampur to Bhubaneswar by Palasa-Bhubaneswar Passenger train when the incident happened.
The video shows a female co-passenger hitting Archana with a shoe claiming she was carrying cattle head, bones, vermilion and rice for practising sorcery. It also shows Archana holding a chappal trying to hit back. While some passengers tried to stop the assaulter, a few can be seen encouraging her. Eyewitnesses said Archana was seen throwing rice on a man.
Refuting the allegations, Archana said, “She (the attacker) snatched my vanity bag and took away my Aadhaar and PAN cards. She even tried to steal my money. The passenger who claimed I threw rice on him was in fact trying to snatch my bag and steal my money,” she said, adding the rice kept in one of her luggage spilled over when the man tried to snatch it from her. Neither Archana nor her co-passengers lodged any complaint with railway police.