Last month, in another case of witchcraft, a tribal youth in Rayagada district was burnt alive by fellow villagers.
In yet another case of witchcraft, two middle-aged tribal men have been allegedly killed by villagers in tribal dominated Rayagada district late last night. Rayagada SP K Siva Subramani said the tribal men Apadu Melaka and Litika Pidika were allegedly beaten to death by villagers of Nathma on charges of witchcraft. “Our cops are trying to recover the bodies of the two.
We would soon arrest the villagers responsible for the killing,” he said. Police said last night a group of villagers barged into the homes of Melaka and Pidika around midnight and started assaulting them. Later, they tied the two up with a rope and dragged along the village road. Shukuri, the teenaged daughter of Pidika, who saved herself by hiding in her home told the police how the villagers dragged her father.
Police said a woman who had taken ill a few days ago went to a witch doctor on Wednesday who decreed that Meleka and Pidika had cast spell on her. After that the enraged villagers allegedly beat the two to death. Last month, in another case of witchcraft, a tribal youth in Rayagada district was burnt alive by fellow villagers.
Tribals of Kana village under Bisamkatak police station thrashed and burnt to death Jagabandhu Kalaka, a youth, after suspecting him to be responsible for the death of a fellow villager Bala Kalaka, who died of an unknown disease.
Prasanta Patnaik