In a tribal district of Madhya Pradesh, a woman was attacked and killed for allegedly practising 'witchcraft'. In the 21st century, this may seem really absurd to some but the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) recent statistics show that it's nothing new.
On Saturday evening, a 40-year-old woman was attacked and killed in front of her 12-year-old son after being branded as a 'witch' by the attacker.
According to a Times of India report, the victim, identified as Jhamkudi Bai was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon by a 43-year-old man, identified as Mathuria.
The attacker told the victim's son during the attack that his mother's witchcraft was responsible for the accused's daughter falling mentally ill.
She went to a nearby river to wash clothes and was on the way back home with her son when she was attacked. "She died on the spot," Chandpur police station in-charge Janak Singh Rawat said.
The attacker did not even spare the kid; the victim's son was also beaten up by Mathuria when he tried to save his mother.
"The incident was reported to the police around midnight and a case has been registered under the relevant sections of IPC. The accused is absconding," said Rawat.
Just a few days ago, the annual figures were released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Thursday.
The figures showed that witch-hunting murders are high in the country, with Jharkhand topping the chart. In Jharkhand, 27 women were lynched after being accused of witchcraft in 2016, which was followed by Odisha with 24 witch-hunting murders.
