Woman killed over suspected sorcery

BARIPADA: A 45-year-old woman was arrested from Thakurmunda area in Mayurbhanj district for allegedly killing a tribal woman suspecting her to be practising sorcery. The accused Jaba Tudu was produced in the court on Monday and remanded in judicial custody.Police sources said Tudu, a resident of Nunadiha village, beheaded Jamuna Hansda (55) suspecting that the latter practised black magic on her husband.Thakurmunda police station OIC Bhagaban Jena said Tudu beheaded her neighbour Hansda with a bill-hook when she was sleeping in her house on Saturday night. The weapon has been seized.Jena said Tudu’s husband Budhan Tudu had been suffering from prolonged illness for the past one year and she claimed that he could not be cured despite several methods of treatments. She suspected Hansda of practising witchcraft on him and urged the villagers to call a meeting to warn her.Accordingly, a meeting was convened on Friday. Though Hansda was invited, she did not turn up which confirmed Tudu’s suspicion. “She planned to kill her and executed it the next day,” said Jena.  While witchcraft dominates life in Mayurbhanj district, it is the old women and widows without family support who become victims of such violent acts. In the last six months, five persons have been killed over sorcery in the district. On May 10, a 60-year-old was beheaded by a minor girl in Bisoi police station area, while a widow was brutally attacked in the same area on May 26.On February 10, Karanjia police arrested two persons including a minor on the charges of killing an aged couple.