Police in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj have recovered broken bangles and bloodstained shirt of a tribal couple on Monday, a day after they went missing, in what officials suspect to be a case of witchcraft-related murder.
Officials said Sitaram Singh, 62, and his wife Led Singh, 55, had left their home in Sitaramsahi under Kaptipada police station area to watch a football match in neighbouring Chitraamba village on Sunday.
“The couple were supposed to be back home by afternoon. But when they did not come back, their relatives started searching for them and lodged a police complaint on Monday,” said sub-divisional police officer Swapna Ranjan Mohapatra.
Police recovered a blood-stained shirt, shoes and some broken bangles from a forest near their home on Monday evening.
“Though we are yet to recover their bodies, prima facie it seems to be a case of witchcraft-related murder. A month ago, Led Singh was brutally assaulted by people of the village who suspected her to be practising black magic. We had to rescue her from a murderous mob,” said Mohapatra.
Police said they have interrogated some villagers and would arrest the accused very soon.
There has been a spate of murders and assaults of men and women over suspicion of witchcraft over the last few months.
Police in tribal-dominated Bolangir district had arrested four people last month for allegedly killing two elderly couple over suspicions of practising witchcraft.
Last week, 34 people, including 22 women, forced six elderly Dalits to consume human excreta and pulled out their teeth with pliers in Ganjam district. They suspected the elderly men of practising witchcraft that allegedly caused the death of at least three women and sickness of seven others.
In July, three members of a tribal family in tribal-dominated Nabarangpur district were made to put their hands into a pot of boiling water mixed with cow dung by their relatives, who accused them of practising sorcery.