Ranchi Court sentences life imprisonment to 13 for killing five women on Suspicion of Witchcraft

NewsBharati    03-Aug-2018
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Ranchi, August 3: In Jharkhand, 13 people were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Ranchi court on Thursday for killing five women on suspicion of practicing witchcraft. There were 43 accused in the case against which trial took place.


 

Five women had been killed in Mandar on the outskirts of Ranchi on midnight of 8 August 2015 after a mob dragged the women from their houses and attacked them suspecting them practicing witchcraft.

One of the 43 accused died in the duration of a trial, while two turned out be juvenile whose trial is going on in Juvenile Justice Board.

Delivering judgment in four cases of the lynching, the court of additional judicial commissioner, Ranchi civil courts, Swarn Shanker Prasad held the 13 guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 354 (assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 3, 4, 5 of Prevention of Witchcraft Act.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 38,000 each on them under Sections 302, 354 of IPC and Prevention of Witchcraft Act. If they fail to pay, convicts will serve 10 more months of simple imprisonment.

The incident was that on August 7 2015 the accused took the 5 women forcibly from their houses and with sticks and stones they murdered the women believing that they practice witchcraft.