On the suspicion of the mother-daughter duo being involved in witchcraft, a group of villagers from Mahak village in Chhattisgarh allegedly assaulted them to death on 13 November.
The Mahak villagers of Narayanpur district allegedly beat Dasri Bai (60) and her daughter Rambati (40) claiming they were practicing black magic that took the lives of many villagers. The brutal thrashing and beating led to their death and later their bodies were burnt.
"Hence a meeting was conducted with all residents and out of aggression [sic] they decided to kill the duo. Though their family protested but the women were thrashed, kicked and assaulted to death. Later, their bodies were burnt in the outskirts of village," The Times of India (TOI) quoted a local as saying.
Though the incident took place at least two weeks back, it surfaced only after a distant relative went to police complaining about the harassment being suffered by the deceased family. The villagers had threatened the victims' family against reporting the incident to the police.
However, when the villagers boycotted Dasri's family and brutally beat the elders on Friday, a distant relative of the family approached the police with the complaint, which was not 'reported' until Saturday.
Narayanpur superintendent of police Amit Kamble was reported as saying that an FIR could not be lodged in connection with the incident as an investigation needed to be conducted first, which could take some time as the village was located in the Maoist-infested interior of Narayanpur forests, reports TOI.
Meanwhile, Dasri's family has been dragged out of the village and they are presently staying in the fields nearby.
