'Bihar witches': Three women in Bihar's Purnea were reportedly made targets of a witch-hunt and horrifically, forced to ingest human urine. As per reports, a minor girl was among those allegedly attacked. Police reportedly said Wednesday multiple persons have been booked in the case with two arrested so far.
The three women were in Mohini Adivasi Tola to visit a cousin whose wife was unwell, News18 reports. Locals in the area however called them witches and allegedly locked them overnight, thrashing them as well. In the morning, they were forced to consume excreta. The incident occurred last week, reports said, but came to light only after a written complaint was filed.
Witch-hunting and beliefs in witchcraft are common in rural areas across eastern states. Purnea in Bihar has seen cases repetitively. In 2017, 70-year-old Ramavati Devi was burnt alive here on allegations that she was a witch.
Bihar Witches: Crimes Of Myth, Here's The History
Given the steady prevalence of witch-hunting practices and brutality in eastern India, Bihar in 1999 passed the Prevention of Witch (Dayan) Practices Act. Jharkhand followed with an Anti Witchcraft Act in 2001, followed by Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and other states where women were targeted on such pretexts.
Cases of women being abused in Bihar on allegations of witchcraft, however, are still reported. Earlier this year in January, a woman was killed by two men in Jamui district on those accusations. After a two-year-old died in the family, the men suspected the women of practicing witchcraft and hung her from the ceiling, Times of India reported.
Another notable case occurred last year in Muzaffarpur's Dakrama village where three women were beaten and paraded semi-naked after locals suspected they were daayans (witches). A video of the incident had gone viral on social media, sparking wide outrage. "They made me drink urine and forced human excreta down my throat," one of the survivors was quoted saying.
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