Twelve persons, who had allegedly lynched two persons terming them to be sorcery practitioners, were arrested by personnel of Ababa police station in Gajapati district of Odisha.
According to police sources, inhabitants of Badeguda and Paderama villages of Dambaguda panchayat had got together for this heinous crime. The victims were Subas Mallik (57) and Pitala Majhi (65) of Paderama village. Both were allegedly beaten to death and later their bodies were hung on a tree inside jungle and burnt down. Although these murders had occurred on May 27, it came to fore when daughter of Subas complained about it before police after three days.
As per initial investigation death of some persons at these two villages during past few years had made the superstitious villagers believe that these deaths were caused by some sorcery practitioner. On May 21, in a village committee meeting the villagers had decided to a ‘khatavidya’ team to track down the alleged sorcery practitioners. On the next day a ‘khatavidya’ troupe from Nayagarh district was brought to the village. Through the ‘khatavidya’, three persons including the two deceased were identified as sorcery practitioners. The other targeted person was one Sami Majhi. On May 26, in another village committee meeting hefty fine was imposed on each of these three persons. Sami agreed to pay up the fine but Subas and Pitala did not agree to it.
The angry mob lynched Subas and Pitala to death.
