Police investigate reports that mob beat 50 "witches" in India

Dec 22, 2008, 9:52 GMT

New Delhi - Authorities in India's central state of Chhattisgarh ordered a probe into reports that a mob beat 50 women with sticks and cut off their hair after accusing them of witchcraft, officials said Monday.

'The Chhattisgarh government has taken serious note of the incident in which 50 women were publicly humiliated and harassed,' state administration spokesman Swaraj Das said.

'Chief Minister Raman Singh termed the incident most inhuman, unfortunate and shameful and on Sunday asked the Chhattisgarh police chief to investigate the case and bring the culprits to book,' he said by telephone from the state capital of Raipur.

The incident allegedly occurred recently in a forested village in the Surguja district, 400 kilometres north of Raipur.

The villagers were acting on the advice of a local faith healer who said the attacks would protect them from evil spirits, the IANS news agency reported.

A mob reported accused the women of being witches and beat them and cut their hair during a nine-day 'purification ceremony,' the agency said.

The state government enacted a Witchcraft Prevention Act in 2005, as reported cases of harassment in the name of fighting witchcraft were on the rise.

The law carries jail terms of up to five years.

Dozens of people are killed every year across India on suspicion of practicing sorcery, particularly in rural areas where there is widespread illiteracy and belief in superstition.