PATNA: Five members of a Tribal family, including three women, were killed on suspicion of practicing black magic in Bihar’s Purnea district. The victims were missing since Sunday.
The incident came to light on Monday when lone survivor in the family, Sonu Kumar, narrated his ordeal to his maternal uncle, who subsequently informed the police. Police later swung into action and arrested a suspect allegedly involved in the crime.
The incident took place at Tetagama village, around 20 km from Purnea district headquarters.
Sonu told the police that around 40-50 people surrounded his house on Sunday night, dragged his mother Sita Devi out of their hut and assaulted her with sticks and sharp-edged weapons.
The mob also attacked Sonu’s wife Rani Devi, father Babulal Oraon, grandmother Kato Devi and son Manjeet Kumar. Sonu somehow managed to escape from the scene of crime.
All the victims were attacked with sticks and sharp-edged weapons.
He said that the attackers burnt the bodies after pouring inflammatory substance, stuffed them in separate gunny bags and threw them into a pond on outskirts of the village.
Sonu was allegedly so frightened that he spent the whole night at a secluded place and reached his maternal uncle’s house early in the morning.
Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Purnea Sadar, Pankaj Sharma said that an FIR has been lodged on the statement of the lone survivor in the family, who managed to give the slip to the marauders. A special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to arrest the accused.
SDPO Sharma, however, claimed that one of the suspects has been detained for interrogation. A dog squad was also pressed into service to ascertain exit route of the accused. “The bodies were traced with help of sniffer dogs,” he told TNIE.
During preliminary investigation, it came to light that a child in the victims’ neighbourhood had died a couple of days ago. They blamed the victims for the infant’s death and attacked them on suspicion of being involved in practicing witchcraft.
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav took a jibe at killing of five members of a tribal family in Purnea. He also slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar for his failure to contain crime and alleged that top officials of government were working under pressure from a retired IAS officer.
Barely three days ago, three persons were killed in Siwan. Earlier, three individuals were murdered in Bhojpur district. “Law-and-order has completely collapsed during NDA rule in Bihar,” he alleged.