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Thursday, Apr 10, 2008
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Three youths held on charge of killing old man

Correspondent

They suspected that the old man was practising ‘witchcraft’

CUTTACK: In a gruesome incident, three tribal youths have allegedly killed a 60-year-old man of the same village by severing his head with a sharp weapon suspecting that he was practising ‘witchcraft’. The youths reportedly went round the village holding the severed head of the victim.

The incident occurred on Tuesday night in Munda Sahi of Abhaypur village under Tangi police station of the district, about 30 kms from here. Police have arrested the accused and sent the body for post mortem.

“We have seized an axe and a knife from the possession of the accused who have confessed to the crime. A case under section 302 of IPC has been registered and the accused would be forwarded to court,” said the Tangi police in-charge officer Smrutiranjan Kar.

According to police, the accused – Bhagaban Banra, Kailash Banra and Rabi Samad, all in their late twenties had allegedly made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Bajru Hembram a few days ago. The accused and some villagers believe that Bajru was practising witchcraft and had killed many villagers by black magic.

“A few days ago, a youth Dasarath Putty died of brain malaria in the village due to lack of proper treatment. But the villagers believed that Bajru was behind the demise of the youth, as he was not pulling on well with Bajru,” said Abhayapur sarapanch Prafulla Naik.

Despite our repeated pleas with the tribal not to fall victims of the blind beliefs, yet some of them were so obstinate that they were blaming Bajru, Naik added. “Even the villagers were blaming my father for any untimely death in the locality,” said Bajru’s daughter.

Ancient practice

“These types of gruesome killings are very common in tribal pockets of Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts,” says sociology professor of Ravenshaw University R K Mohanty. Black magic is a very ancient practice among tribal people, who use some parts of plants to treat certain ailments. But subsequently, these people started believing that the black magic is also used for bring evils and misfortune to others, Mohanty added saying that only education and sincere campaign against the blind belief could remove this evil from society.

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