Suspected of doing black magic, man thrown into funeral pyre

Relatives of homemaker blame him for her death

Sad end: The funeral pyre of Laxmi from where the half-burnt body of Anjaneyulu was retrieved.

Family members of a missing autorickshaw driver lodged a complaint with the Shameerpet police here alleging that he was burnt alive in the funeral pyre of a middle-aged woman, who, according to villagers, died due to black magic performed by him at Adraspally, near Shameerpet.

Police said Boini Anjaneyulu, 25, of Adraspally, 40 km from here, went missing on Wednesday night. Quoting family members, they said that he had been thrashed and burnt alive by relatives of Gyara Laxmi, 45.

Balanagar Deputy Commissioner of Police P.V. Padmaja said that Laxmi, a homemaker from the same village ailing for the last five years, died on Tuesday and her last rites were performed on Wednesday evening. “Laxmi, a mother of four, was suffering from health complications for last five years and died on Tuesday evening at Osmania General Hospital,” she said.

Hours after Laxmi’s cremation, G. Narasimha, one of her relatives called the village sarpanch’s husband B. Narasimha and informed him that they threw Anjaneyulu into the funeral pyre as he had performed ‘black magic.’ Mr. Narasimha alerted the police, who rushed to the cremation site and found that some parts of the body were still burning at 10 p.m.

“Suspecting that it was Anjaneyulu’s body, police pulled it out from the pyre and sent it to Gandhi Hospital,” Mr. Narasimha told The Hindu at the village. He said that Laxmi’s cremation was performed at 5.30 p.m. and usually within three hours the entire body gets burnt in the fire. Anjaneyulu’s footwear was found near the pyre.

“We recovered the partially burnt remains, which will be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for DNA analysis,” Ms. Padmaja said, adding that based on the complaint lodged by Anjaneyulu’s brother Ganesh, a case was registered and investigation is on. Teams were deployed to collect the evidence. “We can’t claim that the remains recovered from the pyre belong to Anjaneyulu without getting a DNA report. The body was burnt beyond identification,” she said.

“Balram and Krishnaiah, both Laxmi’s brothers-in-law, along with two others B. Sriramulu and G. Narasimha were taken into custody,” a senior official associated with the investigation said.

Meanwhile, a rumour spread in Adraspally that Laxmi fell sick and eventually died because of ‘black magic’ performed by Anjaneyulu.