Police asked to identify vulnerable people

RANCHI: With more than 500 cases of witch-hunting being reported in Jharkhand in the last eight months, the state police headquarters has asked district superintendents of police to identify people who are vulnerable of being accused of practicing witchcraft and take preventive measures.

The police have put a number of districts — where the superstitious belief is rampant — on visual tracker software that maps witch-hunting cases so that measures can be taken to stop such incidents, a top police official said on Wednesday.

“Districts registering the high number of witch-hunting cases have been put on visual tracker software as hotspots. District administration will analyse the social evil and carry out awareness drive against the practice and also gather intelligence to prevent such crime,” said Sampat Meena, inspector general of police (crime investigation department).

“District superintendent of police have also been asked to identify people who are vulnerable to witch-hunting and take steps to save them,” she said.

Branding women as witches is particularly prevalent among tribal communities in the state.

While the belief in black magic is superstitious, accusations of witchcraft often stem from village rivalry or jealousy.

Often, a conspiracy is hatched by a single person and slowly the entire village is lured in. The person branded a witch is often held responsible for illness, crop failures, property loss, or a natural calamity.

Experts say superstitious beliefs are behind some of these attacks, but there are occasions when people — especially widows — are targeted for their land and property.

Police figures, states that Khunti with seven murders leads the state in witch-hunting related killing followed by Chaibasa, Gumla and Garwah with four cases each.

Garwah has reported the highest number of 156 witch-hunting cases. Chatra and Palamau with 35 cases each, Godda with 28, Hazaribagh with 27 and Deoghar and Giridih with 25 cases each are among district registering highest number of offence.