Jharkhand: A mother and her daughter were forced to consume human excreta and undergo head tonsure by neighbours on suspicions of practising witchcraft.
The shocking incident took place in Dulami village under Sonahatu police station in Jharkhand's Ranchi.
The incident came to light after the victims – 65-year-old woman Karo Devi and her 35-year-old daughter Basanti – approached the police on Friday, February 16.
The victims named 11 people from their village as the culprits.
After the preliminary investigation, the police have arrested all the 11 persons.
A few days ago, a distant relative of the victims fell sick and passed away. Soon after, two more relatives fell sick. The accused and their families blamed the mother-daughter duo for the death and alleged that they practice “witchcraft”, said the police.
The accused persons “dragged” the mother and daughter “out of their house and made them eat human excreta,” said the police. They were later taken near river banks where their heads were tonsured.
In the last 17 years, reports claim that over 500 women were harassed and murdered on suspicions of practising witchcraft.
In 2016, a 35-year old tribal woman from Kalyanpur village in Bokaro was stripped in public, tonsured, forced to eat human excreta, because she supported a man branded by a witch doctor.
