7 held for ‘killing’ two ‘black magic practitioners’

Mohana: Police on Tuesday arrested seven persons of Chudangapur village under Adaba police limits in Gajapati district in connection with the killing of two persons for ‘practising sorcery.’

Sources said, these villagers along with some others had allegedly killed two residents of their village- Ganga Gamanga (45) and Biranchi Bastaray (48), suspecting them of practising black magic.

Sources added, the death of four villagers in past two years had raised doubt among them that Gamanga and Bastaray were responsible for their deaths.

On Monday evening, some villagers called the deceased from their homes on the pretext of attending a village meeting and beheaded their heads with sharp weapons. To destroy the proof, they took the bodies to a nearby forest and burnt them using petrol, police said quoting statement of a complaint.

“We have registered a case in this regard and investigation is on,” Gajapati SP Sushil Panigrahi said.
A police team inspected the crime spot and seized some objects.

But family member of Gamanga alleged that, much before the gruesome incident some villagers had threatened them to socially boycott their family.

“They were threatening us to leave the village for no fault of ours. We too had heard them talking to socially boycott us,” Basanti Gamanga, the dauther-in-law of Ganga said.