Woman hacked to death on mere suspicion of practising witchcraft

A tea garden worker was hacked to death on mere suspicion that she used to carry out black magic. The incident took place at Rangamati tea estate in Jalpaiguri on Monday late night.

Police said the victim Budhmonia Nagasia was a worker of Rangamati tea estate. There had been repeated attempts to kill her by one of her neighbour as he used to consider her to be a witch. The victim’s neighbour Suku Nagasia was also passing through a tough time as everyone in his family was ill. It had made him start thinking that Budhmonia had carried out some black magic on his family members.

He had asked her not to come close to his house. On Sunday, he had seen her crossing the courtyard of his house and beaten her up. However, the victim’s son went to the spot and rescued her.

On Monday night, the accused found the woman passing by his house. This time, he didn’t say anything to her. Instead, she took a sickle and repeatedly stabbed her.

Local people went to the spot hearing the woman’s cries for help and found her lying in a pool of blood. They took her to a local hospital where she was declared brought dead. The accused, however, managed to flee and is still at large.

The victim’s son lodged a complaint with the police on Tuesday morning. The police conducted raids at different places in search of the accused but couldn’t find him. Though the victim’s son claimed that his mother was killed on mere suspicion of being a witch, the police have initiated a probe to ascertain whether the accused had any rivalry with the victim.

Similar incident have taken place in the area earlier as well. Thus the district administration had conducted awareness programmes to check such incidents.