Jajpur,21/07(PPT); Police in Jajpur district on Tuesday arrested four tribal persons including a woman on charges of brutally killing an elderly tribal couple on Sunday night on grounds that they were witches and practised black magic and responsible for the untimely death of some youths in the village recently.
All the four arrested persons have been identified as Birima Gagrai, a tribal woman, Sadhu Gagrai Sankar Hesa , Tofan Sinku and Sagar Sinku of village Nimapali under Kalinganagar police station. They along with other villagers assaulted the tribal couple Saila Balmuch (65) and his wife Basanti Balmuch(60) of the village and burnt them to death inside their house. All the arrested persons were under the wrong impression that some youths of the village died due to practice of witchcraft by the deceased couple for which to take revenge they killed the couple and later burnt their bodies in the village by pouring kerosene on Sunday night. Some accused managed to flee from the village after this incident. We are raiding their hideouts to nab them. Police are investigating the case “, said Jayaram Satapathy , the Additional Superintendent of Police of Kalinganagar.All the four arrested persons were booked under sections of 147, 148, 302, 436 and 149 IPC and sec 4 of Odisha Prevention of Witch-hunting Act, 2013. They were produced in the court at Jajpur Road on Tuesday. The court rejected their bail applications and remanded them into jail custody, added the police officer .