In a brutal incident, a 65-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly lynched by a group of upper caste men in Agra, Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday morning after they mistook her for a witch. The accused men thought she had ventured into their neighbourhood to cut the hair of women in the village.
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Maan Devi, a resident of Mutnai village in Agra, had lost her way home and entered a predominantly upper caste neighbourhood at around 4 am. The locals thought she had ventured into their locality to cut the hair of the women in the village.
Her dishevelled hair and wrinkled face triggered panic among the villagers who thrashed her to death.
Mentally unstable
"My mother was attacked brutally with sticks by a group of Baghel men. She had gone out to the field early in the morning but forgot her way home and entered a Baghel-dominated area, where she was killed," said Manoj Jatav, son of the deceased woman, according to a TOI report.
"She kept pleading for mercy and even identified herself but the men kept on hitting her. They called her a witch and said that she had come to chop off the braids of women. She died on her way to the hospital," Jatav added.
Meanwhile, Tej Bahadur Singh, station officer of Dauki said, "The old woman was not mentally stable and her wrinkled face and white hair appear to have triggered panic among local residents. A complaint has been lodged for murder and FIR will be filed shortly."
Hair chopping mystery
While reports of a hair-chopping gang in Gurgaon and Mewat have terrorised many in the National Capital Region, reports of two such incidents in Agra and Mathura have now created agony amongst the people in Uttar Pradesh.
Till now two women from Agra's Achnera area and Mathura's Mannt area fell victim to this gang. While many victims have claimed that a supernatural entity is responsible for these acts, the police are trying to find out a concrete proof behind these attacks.
With regard to the Dalit woman lynching, the police registered a case and started the investigation. However, the complainant, victim's son, has not mentioned about the rumour of cutting women's braids as the reason behind the killing.
"We are investigating the matter, but in the written complaint the victim's relatives have not mentioned about the rumour of women's hair being chopped as a reason for the attack on the old woman," said Fatehabad circle officer Tejveer Singh.
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