Indian family of 5 beaten to death over ‘witchcraft’ claims
Witchcraft beliefs persist in rural India, particularly in tribal communities. Hundreds were killed on suspicion of witchcraft in recent years
Indian villagers beat a family of five to death and dumped their corpses in a lake, accusing them of “practising witchcraft” after the death of a boy, police said on Tuesday.
Three people have been arrested and have confessed to the crime, police in the northern state of Bihar said in a statement.
Three women – including a 75-year-old – were among those murdered.
The main accused believed that his son’s recent death was caused by one of those killed, and blamed “him and his family of practising witchcraft”, the statement said.
“After beating the victims to death, the perpetrators loaded the bodies onto a tractor and dumped them in a pond,” police said.
The murderers and victims all belonged to India’s Oraon tribe in Bihar, India’s poorest state and a mainly Hindu region of at least 130 million people.