Branding elderly Jharkhand woman a ‘witch’, relatives ‘slit her throat’ while she walked to market

The incident took place under the jurisdiction of Boram police station. The officer in charge of the station, Manoranjan Kumar, told The Indian Express that the three women followed her, and one of them attacked her with a sharp-edged weapon — known locally as a gowli — and left her body in the forest. Bhavi was on her way to Kuyiyani village’s Common Service Centre (CSC) to collect her pension, the officer said.

Police have registered a murder case and invoked provisions of the Prevention of Witch Practices Act.

One of the victim’s three daughters-in-law told The Indian Express that the accused had earlier barged into their home and beaten her mother-in-law. “They had been planning to kill her. For the past five years, she has been branded a ‘dayan’ (witch). Whatever bad things would happen in the village, my mother-in-law would be blamed,” she said.

The victim’s nephew, Gopinath Singh, said that while the accused had been accusing her of being a witch for many years, “the whole village stands against us”.

According to the police, the killing was not solely related to her being branded a witch, but also stemmed from a long-standing personal enmity. The accused and the victim were members of the same extended family and lived in the same village.

“There had been disputes between them for about two years. It was not purely a witchcraft-related matter, as the victim’s family claims,” officer Manoranjan Kumar said.

The victim’s relatives, however, alleged that police were downplaying that angle. “It is entirely a case of witch-branding,” the nephew said.

Police said that both the accused and the victim belonged to the Bhumij Adivasi community, and that the FIR was lodged by the victim’s son, Sudhir Singh.

Sudhir said the three women are his distant relatives. “They had threatened my mother before. For years, they targeted her, calling her a ‘dayan’. It started after my father’s death, about six to seven years ago. My mother never practised black magic. But whenever people or animals fell ill, or accidents happened, they blamed my mother,” he said.

“They had already warned her that they would kill her. On Monday, when she was on her way to collect her pension, all three of them followed her, found her alone in the forest, and attacked her throat and neck with a gowli,” Singh said.

Sudhir claimed that his wife has also been labelled a witch. “We even took the matter to a village meeting, but no one took it seriously or stood with us,” he said.