BARIPADA: Five persons were arrested for allegedly burning an elderly woman alive suspecting her to be a witch in Mayurbhanj district on Monday. The incident took place in Dhansol village under Rasgovindpur police limits in the district. The deceased is Shakina Rout (60), a widow.
Paresh Rout (33), Kartik Rout (50), Mahendra Rout (45), Alamoni Rout (62) and Anjana Rout (45) , all Shakina’s neighbours, were ailing for a long time and they suspected that the woman was practising sorcery on them. On Sunday evening, they dragged Shakina out of her house and assaulted her in public view. The incident took place in absence of the woman’s family members. When she fell unconscious, they took her to a forest near Bharadasol Chhack and considering her dead, they set the woman on fire.
Another villager, Narayan Soren saw Shakina’s body burning and informed her family members who rushed to the spot. They admitted her to the District Headquarters Hospital where she succumbed around 3 am. Doctors said Shakina had sustained critical burn injuries.
A case was registered by kin of the deceased with Rasgovindpur Police, who arrested the five accused. All of them confessed to their crime during interrogation. They were produced in Baripada SDJM Court on Monday which remanded them in judicial custody after rejecting their bail plea.
Mayurbhanj is one of the districts that witnesses sorcery related violence every year. In fact, three sorcery killings have occurred in the last nine months here and 47 people have died in the last five years. Last month, two minor boys and their mother were killed by three persons in Dhipabandh village under Badampahar police station of Kusumi block over suspected sorcery. Awareness camps on sorcery related violence have had little impact on the social evil.