'Witchcraft': Mob lynches, burns alive 5 family members in Bihar's Purnia; 15-year-old survivor recounts horror
PATNA: A tribal mob assaulted and burned to death late on Sunday five members of a family in a village of Bihar's Purnia district over suspicions of "witchcraft", as the lone survivor, a 15-year-old boy, watched the carnage from a distance, reports Kshitiz.
Three of the victims in the mob attack at Tetgama village under Muffasil police station were women, including the family's 70-year-old matriarch. Sonu, whose mother Sita Devi (45) was seemingly the mob's primary target, fled to his maternal grandmother's house in another village close to dawn and narrated the sequence of events.
Police quoted the boy as saying that his father Babu Lal Oraon (50) and the other three victims - septuagenarian Kanto Devi, Rani Devi (22) and Manjit Kumar (25) - were lynched while trying to save his mother.
By Monday morning, three people suspected to have led the 50-strong mob were arrested. Purnia SP Sweety Sehrawat visited Tetgama with Sonu to verify how the attack unfolded. Cops from three nearby police stations, including Muffasil, were deployed to prevent a backlash.
"This village is inhabited by the Oraon community. An SIT has been set up and raids are underway to arrest all the suspects," Sadar SDPO Pankaj Sharma said.
Sharma said preliminary findings suggested a possible connection between the attack and a boy's death two days earlier. "One of the arrested suspects, Nakul, said the mob dragged the victims 150-200 metres from their home and killed them. They used diesel to set them ablaze."
Three of the victims in the mob attack at Tetgama village under Muffasil police station were women, including the family's 70-year-old matriarch. Sonu, whose mother Sita Devi (45) was seemingly the mob's primary target, fled to his maternal grandmother's house in another village close to dawn and narrated the sequence of events.
Police quoted the boy as saying that his father Babu Lal Oraon (50) and the other three victims - septuagenarian Kanto Devi, Rani Devi (22) and Manjit Kumar (25) - were lynched while trying to save his mother.
By Monday morning, three people suspected to have led the 50-strong mob were arrested. Purnia SP Sweety Sehrawat visited Tetgama with Sonu to verify how the attack unfolded. Cops from three nearby police stations, including Muffasil, were deployed to prevent a backlash.
"This village is inhabited by the Oraon community. An SIT has been set up and raids are underway to arrest all the suspects," Sadar SDPO Pankaj Sharma said.
Sharma said preliminary findings suggested a possible connection between the attack and a boy's death two days earlier. "One of the arrested suspects, Nakul, said the mob dragged the victims 150-200 metres from their home and killed them. They used diesel to set them ablaze."
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