Woman lynched by mob over suspicion of braid cutting

VILLAGERS ATTACKED A GROUP OF 4 BEGGARS, INCLUDING THE WOMAN AND A 9YEAROLD BOY, ROUGHLY A WEEK AFTER A GIRL’S BRAID WAS CUT

A Jharkhand mob allegedly lynched a woman on Saturday on suspicion of her involvement in chopping off a local girl’s braid, the second such death this month because of a mass hysteria that has gripped north India.

Police said villagers in Sahibganj district’s Radhanagar attacked a group of four beggars, including the woman and a nineyear-old boy, roughly a week after a local girl’s braid was cut. They pelted stones at the woman, said to be in her late 40s, and others on suspicion that they were involved in witchcraft. The boy is critically injured.

“We have beefed up security in the area. For now, superstition seems to be the cause of the attack; we are still investigating,” said Sahibganj SP P Murugan.

He said an eyewitness informed police, who spent an hour trying to control the mob. By the time the victims were rushed to hospital, the woman was dead.

Earlier this month, a 60-year old Dalit woman was allegedly lynched in Agra after villagers thought she was out to cut hair of sleeping women. This came after hundreds of reports of women’s hair being mysteriously chopped off in Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Women have reported waking up to the sound of scissors, spotting black cats, and seeing ghosts and shadows.

Such deaths are common in superstition-struck Jharkhand. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the state has witnessed the maximum incidences of witch-hunting in India in the past five years. Here, occultists and sorcerers often call the shots in the hinterland and over 15,000 women have fallen prey to superstition-triggered attacks by now in the state, say activists. The state registered 32 murders related to witch hunting — the highest in the country in 2015 — revealed data.

Police suspect many people are taking advantage of the hysteria to mask crimes.