Assam: Woman stabbed to death on suspicion of being witch in Dhekiajuli

The accused attacked the woman with a sharp weapon multiple times on the victim’s neck, hands, chest, and stomach

Months after Assam reported two separate incidences of witch hunting since August this year, another incident has come to fore in Dhekiajuli in Assam’s Sonitpur district, where a woman was stabbed to death on suspicion of being a witch.

The incident took place at the Hirajuli tea estate in Dhekiajuli.

The deceased woman has been identified as Manju Nag, and the accused as Mukesh Munda.
The accused attacked the woman with a sharp weapon multiple times on the victim’s neck, hands, chest, and stomach.

The police have arrested the accused, during which the accused confessed to his crime before the police.

This incident has again highlighted the superstitious practices carried out in the tea gardens of Assam.
It’s not the first time women have become victims of these superstitious practices. Earlier, in September, a woman’s body was recovered with her hands and legs tied from a cremation ground in the Baida-Chatabari area in Assam’s Goalpara district.

The victim was identified as Praneshwari Rabha.

The locals alleged that Rabha might have been killed over suspicion of being a witch.

Similarly, in August, an incident came to light where a mother was forced to live separately from her son and daughter for over 17 years after the woman had fallen prey to superstition in Naguwapara, a remote village along the Assam-Meghalaya border.

It was in 2005 that she was attacked by locals in the area on mere suspicion of practicing witchcraft and driven away from her home.

Since then, the ‘victim’ has not been allowed to enter Naguwapara.

Does all these incidences highlight the government’s failure to curb this practice despite the existence of the Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention, and Protection) Act, 2015.

Under this act, no person shall identify, call, stigmatize, defame, or accuse any other person as a witch by words, signs, or indications, or by conduct, actions, or any other manner, or instigate, aid, or abet such an act or commit witch hunting.

Edited by- Haynashree Narjary

Assam woman killed over suspicion of being a witch

COMMENTS