Odisha: Ten arrested for torturing man in Ganjam witchhunt

BERHAMPUR: Ten persons were arrested on Sunday for allegedly pulling out the teeth of a 55-year-old man and forcing him to consume human excreta after suspecting him to be practising witchcraft at Jhada Sahi under Ganjam district’s Jagannath Prasad police station, 80 km from here, on Thursday. This is the second such case of torture in the district in the past 10 days.

“The accused were arrested and forwarded to a local court following a complaint by the victim, Sudam Nayak, on Friday,” said sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Bhanjanagar , S S Mishra. He said the accused, most of them distant relatives of the victim, held him accountable for the death of a 20-year-old youth, Chandan Nayak, about a fortnight ago. They said Nayak died of Sudam’s ‘black magic’.

Sudam fled the village out of fear after being tortured by the villagers and took shelter in a relative’s house in Bhanjanagar. The following day, he lodged a complaint against the accused. “We will arrest some other persons who are also involved in attacking the old man,” said the SDPO.

Recently, police had arrested 35 people in Gopapur village under Khallikote police station for allegedly pulling out the teeth of and forcibly feeding human excreta to six elderly persons in the district, suspecting them of practising witchcraft. Police conducted an awareness meeting at Gopapur, urging people to shun such practices. “People die of different ailments and not of witchcraft,” said P K Rath, a former professor of Utkal University. “If anyone is suffering from any disease, take him/her to hospital,” he told the gathered audience. Among others, SDPO (Chhatrapur) Utkal Keshari Das, tehsildar (Khallikote) Chhitta Ranjan Mohapatra, rationalist S K Dhada and community leader Bipra Charan Nahak addressed the meeting.

Earlier, the Berhampur-based Humanist Rationalist Organisation had submitted a memorandum to chief minister Naveen Patnaik through the revenue divisional commissioner (southern division) here, urging him to ask officials to undertake massive awareness drive against sorcery among the villagers.