Tag: NCRB

65-year-old woman killed after being branded ‘witch’ in Jharkhand: Cops

Source – hindustantimes.com

A 65-year-old woman suspected of practising witchcraft was beaten to death by a man in Jharkhand’s Simedga district, days after a report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said the state recorded the highest number of such killings in India in 2018.

Police said 22-year-old Manoj Bilung allegedly killed Ashrita Bilung with sticks after branding her a witch on Friday, a day before his wedding at Sarkhutoli village under Pakartand police station, around 140km from capital Ranchi.

“Suspecting Ashrita of practising black magic, Manoj went to her house in the village on Friday midnight and beat her to death. This is what Manoj said during interrogation,” Pakartand police station in-charge Hiralal Mahto said.

Mahto said Manoj was arrested on Saturday and sent to jail on Sunday.

Despite a drop in witch-hunt murder cases in Jharkhand, annual figures released by NCRB last Wednesday show the tribal state witnessed the highest number of such killings in the country in 2018 at 18.

The country witnessed 63 such murders in 2018. Madhya Pradesh recorded 10 witch-hunt murders, Andhra Pradesh nine, Chhattisgarh eight and Odisha saw five such killings in 2018, as per NCRB.

An analysis of NCRB’s data since 2001 shows 560 women were lynched in Jharkhand after being branded witches between 2001 and 2018. The state saw the highest or 54 witch-hunting murders in 2013, 52 in 2008 and 50 in 2007.

Jharkhand has seen a decline in such killings since 2014 when 47 women were lynched, which dropped to 32 in 2015, 27 in 2016, 19 in 2017 and 18 in 2018.

Four people in their 60s, including two women, were killed in July last year after around a dozen angry villagers dragged them out of their houses and attacked them with sticks and sharp weapons while accusing them of practising witchcraft at Siskari village in Gumla district.

Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are the worst affected states of the social evil. Hundreds of women have been persecuted, tortured and killed after being branded as witches in the past few decades in these four states.

Superstition, sectarianism killed more people in Jharkhand than Naxalism.

Source –

Superstition and sectarianism killed more people in Jharkhand than Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in 2018, says the latest report on Crime in India by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), highlighting the deep-rooted superstition and caste distinction in the tribal State.

The report, released on Wednesday, said that the motive behind at least 18 murders in Jharkhand was witch-hunting in the year 2018, while honour killing was the reason behind nine murders in the same year. Interestingly, “Extremism/ Naxalism/ Insurgency” was reason for only two murders in the State in year 2018, the report added.

While figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) claim that at least 19 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are Left Wing Extremism-affected, the NCRB data may convince one to believe that superstition was far more dangerous and widespread here, say social activists. According to the NCRB report, the motive behind 62 murders across India in 2018 was witchcraft and 18 of them were reported in Jharkhand – the highest in the country.

“Witch-hunting is a social malady. We require joint efforts from different stakeholders to spread awareness against such age-old superstitious practices,” said Jharkhand Director General of Police (DGP) KN Choubey. He, however, refused to comment on the NCRB figures of murders executed by LWE groups, claiming that he was yet to personally go through the report. “The NCRB is a trustworthy and reputed agency,” he added.  

This is, however, not the first instance when Jharkhand has topped in terms of murders related to witchcraft in India. Superstitious practices in the interiors have remained a major concern for the Government here for several years. The tribal dominated state witnessed at least 590 cases of witch-hunting from 2001 to 2018, says combined figures of the State police and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Besides, several incidents of occultists trying to resurrect dead people and women getting married off to snakes and dogs have been reported from far off villages in Jharkhand in the past – a proof of the deep-embedded superstition in the rural society here.

Jharkhand also tops in terms of honour killings. The State witnessed nine incidents of honour killings in 2018 – the highest in India. Police said that most of the honour killing incidents are triggered by sectarianism and caste distinctions. Inter-caste love affairs and marriages were still one of the most common reasons for honour killings in Jharkhand, they added. “Such flawed idea of honour and caste distinction has to be dealt with extensive social awareness campaigns. The police can investigate murder cases and nab the accused, but the change has to begin in the society,” said Choubey. 

While the NCRB report puts the figure of human sacrifice to zero in Jharkhand in 2018, some incidents of alleged human sacrifice too have been reported here in the past decade.

In a suspected case of human sacrifice, the police had to exhume half-buried, naked and decapitated bodies of two children from a village in Latehar, about 100 Kilometers northwest of capital Ranchi, in July last year.

In May 2017, the police arrested a 26-year-old Ranchi man on charges of attempting to sacrifice his mother to appease a goddess. And in 2015, a 60-year-old man was reportedly sacrificed in Gumla for better rainfall.