Lohardaga — In a horrifying case of superstition-driven violence, three members of a family were hacked to death on suspicion of practising witchcraft in Kekrang Bartoli village of Jharkhand’s Lohardaga district, officials said on Thursday.
The victims have been identified as Laxman Nagesia (47), his wife Bifani Nagesia (45), and their nine-year-old son Ramvilas Nagesia. According to police, the murders occurred late on Wednesday night under the jurisdiction of the Peshrar police station.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the assailants used sharp-edged weapons, including an axe and a spade, to slit the victims’ throats while they were asleep. After committing the crime, they locked the house from outside and fled.
The gruesome killings were discovered on Thursday morning when neighbours grew suspicious after the family failed to open their door for hours. Police arrived at the scene, recovered the bodies, and sent them for post-mortem.
At the time of the incident, four family members were in the house. The sole survivor, Sukhmania Nagesia, told police that the family had been harassed by some villagers who accused them of practising witchcraft. “A village panchayat had been held earlier over the same issue,” she stated.
She recounted the ordeal: “On Wednesday night, my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law were asleep when several men broke in and attacked them with an axe. I was locked in my room from outside and couldn’t raise an alarm.”
SDPO Vedant Shankar said that although the exact motive is still under investigation, superstition and witchcraft allegations appear to be the primary cause. “All possible angles are being examined. Police teams have been deployed to identify and arrest the culprits,” he added.
Local sources confirmed that rumours of witchcraft had been circulating in the village for months, heightening tensions between the Nagesia family and other residents.
The brutal murders have sparked panic and outrage across Kekrang Bartoli and nearby villages, with residents demanding the immediate arrest of those responsible and stricter enforcement against superstition-driven violence.
With inputs from IANS