Oct 18, 2012: Witch hunt: Three women beaten to death

TNN | Oct 18, 2012, 02.48AM IST

DASPUR (WEST MIDNAPORE): In a chilling reminder of the honour killings in Haryana on 'rulings' by khap panchayats, three women from two Adivasi-dominated villages in West Midnapore's Daspur were stripped, beaten to death and buried on the banks of the Kasai river on Tuesday evening after a salishi sabha decreed them guilty of witchcraft.

One of them was tonsured and all of them, aged between 40 and 70, were stripped before being beaten to death. Naked bodies of the three were dug out on Wednesday morning by the officials of Daspur police station and a magistrate. The son of one of the victims then identified the bodies of his mother Sambari Singh, 40, grandmother Fulmoni, 70, and his mother's namesake, a 50-year-old neighbour from adjacent Harirajpur village. The bodies with injury marks on their heads and neck were sent for post-mortem.

Seven villagers, including five women, were arrested.

Sources said CPM panchayat member Jiten Singh had died of brain tumour at Dubrajpur almost six months back. After holding several salishi sabhas, villagers alleged that Jiten had died ofwitchcraft and held their neighbours, Fulmoni and Sambari, responsible. They were told to pay Rs 65,000, which they refused since they were poor farmers.

Adivasi villagers among the 100-odd families residing in Dubrajpur held periodic salishi sabhas for over a month then. Locals like Bablu Singh, Dhoba Singh, Lalu Singh and Nilu Singh alleged that Fulmoni and Sambari were witches, who killed Jiten. "Besides, others in the village were often down with fever or stomach ache because of the mother-daughter duo," some villagers had alleged.

In Harirajpur, villagers accused another woman, Sambari Singh, of practising witchcraft. Villagers held yet another sabha on Tuesday, from where they took the trio to the Kasai river banks and beat them to death.in Bablu Singh's house on Tuesday morning, where the three women were summoned. Those attending the meeting then began beating up the three. When some of Bablu's neighbours objected, the women were dragged to the Dubrajpur primary school and beaten up severely again. As the classes began in the school, they were taken to the banks of the Kasai on a boat, stripped and beaten to death.

that flows by the village. With the women on board, villagers rowed the boat to the opposite bank of the river where they were stripped and beaten to death. The tormentors also tonsured Fulmoni.

After the victim's families informed police on Wednesday morning, cops from Daspur police station and a magistrate reached the river bank which had a large heap covered with sand. They asked Fulmoni's grandson Bodhu to dig out the heap. Villagers joined him. The three nude bodies were dug out and Bodhu identified all three victims.

Kharagpur additional SP Barun Chandrasekhar said seven people have been arrested ad a probe is on. But the main culprits who had organized the salishi sabhas are absconding.
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