nA 55-year-old woman was allegedly killed on the suspicion of practicing black magic at a village in tribal-dominated Jashpur district, police said here on Sunday.
“Three persons were arrested and a minor was detained in this connection. The murder happened in Jiling village on June 2,” Laxman Singh Dhruve, Station House Officer (SHO), City Kotwali police station said.
The accused have been identified as Anil Ram Bhagat, his brother Virendra Ram, his friend Santosh Ram and the minor, all natives of Jiling.
"On the night of June 2, Chhandni Bai was strangled to death by Bhagat with a rope when she was sitting alone outside her house. Later with the support of three other accused, he packed the body in a sack and threw it into a dam of Neemgaon village," he said while adding the next day they fished out the body from the dam and buried in a pit nearby.
"Bhagat believed that the woman practiced black magic, which led to the death of his buffalo recently, and a miscarriage happened to her wife in 2015" the SHO said adding they were arrested on June 16 and during interrogation they have confessed to committing the crime.
They were booked under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 34 (common intention) of IPC, the SHO said, adding further probe is underway.
