Police campaigns against the practice of witchcraft and the law failed to yield any result.
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Despite groundswell of campaigns and promulgation of law against it, the abominable practice of witchcraft goes on unabated in Odisha. This is evident from two witchcraft-related murders reported in the last 24 hours.
The two separate murders were allegedly committed in the Kendrapara and Sambalpur districts.
In the first incident, Aju Maharana and his two sons – Bipin Maharana and Gunua Maharana – broke into the house of Mani Charan Sahu (55), a native of Haranabebi village under the Pattamundai police station jurisdiction of the Kendrapara district, and allegedly hacked him to death with people living in his neighbourhood.
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Family members of the deceased have filed a complaint with the Pattamundai rural police station. The police have registered a case and search is on for the absconding culprits.
In another witchcraft-related bloodletting, four persons attacked a man and his wife with axes, leading to the death of the man in Dimirikuda village under Kisinda police limits in the Sambalpur district. They suspected that the couple had resorted to witchcraft practice and cast evil spirits in the village. The woman, however, managed to escape unhurt.
Though a case has been registered in this connection, no arrest has been made in this connection.
There is no letup in witchcraft-related violence in different parts of the state. Police are carrying out anti-witchcraft campaigns from time to time. But, this has failed to yield the desired result.
These sort of disconcerting incidents are occurring due to poverty, family disputes, blind beliefs and lack of education. The ‘tantriks’ or the witch-doctors in these areas are troublemakers who motivate and convince the gullible tribal people to brand a woman or a man as a witch.
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