VISHVENDU JAIPURIAR
Hazaribag, Nov 15: A 60-year-old woman named Kesri Devi died of suicide due to regular torture by a few villagers who branded her a ‘Dayan’ (witch) and blamed her for the death of a child which happened ten days ago.
The incident took place in Bhauraj village under Pratappur police station in Chatra district on Sunday night. The police sent the woman’s body for postmortem and started a probe to reach out for facts related to this case.
According to the woman’s brother Gaura Yadav, a few villagers including Santosh Yadav, Mahendra Yadav, Jitendra Yadav, Manoj Yadav, Sunita Devi, Rita Devi and others were torturing her sister.
Ten days ago, the son of one Santosh Yadav died and they started blaming her for this death. They came to her house and put the dead body outside, forcing her to revive the child. They left the place and after the cremation of the child’s body, came again and thrashed Kesri mercilessly. Kesri’s husband Doman Yadav and sons were away when the incident happened.
According to sources, the village panchayat was also called where Kesri was asked to pay a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh. Fearing action, she paid Rs 5,000 and pleaded her inability in giving the rest amount but was warned. Seeing the continuous humiliation and finding no way out, she died of suicide by consuming pesticides.
Officer-in-charge of Pratappur police station, Vinod Kumar, said culprits will not be spared. “We are probing the case to identify the culprits,” he added.
