Gumla: A 40-year-old woman was allegedly murdered on suspicion of practising witchcraft in Jharkhand’s Gumla district on Thursday. The accused, a fellow villager, later surrendered at the local police station, police said.
The victim, Taramuni Devi, was washing utensils near a village school in Khatgaon under the Palkot police station area when Shamil Dungdung allegedly attacked her with an axe, accusing her of practising witchcraft.
She sustained fatal injuries to her head and body and died on the spot.
Soon after the incident, the accused reportedly reached the Palkot police station on his own and surrendered. Police later recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem.
An FIR has been registered on the complaint of the victim’s husband, Anmol Kerketta, and the accused has been detained for questioning.
According to the victim’s family, this was not the first attack. Her nephew, Ranjit Kerketta, claimed that the accused had assaulted Taramuni Devi in a similar manner in 2025. Although she survived that attack, the family alleged that he continued to threaten her and repeatedly branded her a witch.
Police said preliminary findings suggest the accused had been suffering from epilepsy for nearly three years and believed that Taramuni Devi had used witchcraft to make him ill. Investigators are examining all angles to establish the exact motive behind the killing.
The incident has once again drawn attention to the continuing menace of witch-hunting in Jharkhand, where women—especially from tribal communities—are often targeted, assaulted and even killed over superstitious beliefs despite legal safeguards and awareness campaigns.
With inputs from IANS