In an inhumane incident in Jharkhand’s Dumka, four members of a family, including three women, were forced to consume human excreta over alleged suspicion of the family practising witchcraft.
According to the police, the family was also tortured with a hot iron rod in Aswari village, which comes under the area of Sariyahat Police Station in Dumka.
“Four members of a family, including three women, were forced to consume human excreta after they were tortured with a hot iron rod in Aswari village in the Sariyahat PS area of Dumka district over allegations that they practised witchcraft,” said Naval Kishor Singh, Inspector, Saraiyahat PS.
Adding further that the women were brutally thrashed, the inspector said that all four persons have been shifted to Saraiyahat Community Health Centre.
“The four people were admitted to Saraiyahat Community Health Centre. Later, they were shifted to Deoghar for further treatment. Three women were brutally thrashed, after which all four of them were caught and excreta and urine were forcibly put into their mouths,” said NK Singh.
The police have arrested six persons accused of the inhumane act after a victim lodged a First Information Report against them. All the accused persons are being interrogated, Singh said.
According to Singh, the information about the alleged assault on the family was received on the same day of the incident, that is, Saturday (24 September) and the concerned police station was informed about it on Sunday.
During the interrogation, the police disclosed that the accused persons blamed the victims as they alleged that their child was ill because of them.
The police said that the situation in the village is normal, but they are still patrolling here.
Prima facie, they found the complainant’s allegations of being forced to consume excreta and assaulted with the hot iron rod by the accused as true.
The police initiated the probe after registering the complaint under the Witch Prohibition Act Act 3/4
and assault.