Ajmer Woman Dies After She Was Paraded Naked, Tortured And Made To Eat Human Faeces!

India, they say, is a developing country but the path to progress is plagued with a lot of problems. And no matter how hard we try, we will never truly be liberated unless we shun the social evils of taboos that are as old as the civilisation. In fact, we will never be the society we want to be unless we do away with the stigmas attached; age-old notions that are not only regressive but can prove fatal in many cases.

Witchcraft and the superstitions it brings along is one of those social evils. Yes, your cosmopolitan evening papers might not tell you about it but the shroud of sorcery still exists in the rural India.

In a shocking incident, a 40-year-old woman in Ajmer’s Kekri village died due to torture and assault after she was branded a witch by a group of villagers. 

 According to Hindustan Times, the mother of two, identified as Kanya Devi, was stripped naked and paraded in a witch-hunt. She was also fed human excreta and dirty water from nearby drains, claims her 15-year-old son. 

The FIR of the case was registered late against four people including two teenaged girls (one of whom was a relative), an acquaintance and a man who was the nephew of Devi’s husband. It was registered under section 302 (murder), section 201(causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC and different sections of the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-hunting Act.

 

According to Devi’s son, the eyewitness to the entire incident, his teenage cousin and her friend started beating his mother up which led to a series of barbarism. He told HT, 

“The two girls suddenly started behaving strangely and claimed that a spirit has entered their body. In that state, they claimed that my mother was a witch.”

 

He also explained the ordeal which is nightmarish, to say the least. 

“By this time, 8-10 people had assembled. Some of them brought human excreta from nearby fields. Most of the people in our settlement defecate in the open.”

 

Reportedly, the mob also forced the victim to drink the filthy water from the nearby drain. And it was followed by smouldering burning charcoal on her body. 

“They thrust hot coal in her hands and also hurt her in other places. They kept calling my mother a witch and refused to listen to her calls for mercy.

They didn’t pay any heed to my pleas to release her and stripped her naked. At this point, I went in as I couldn’t see my mother being paraded naked.”

As unfortunate as it sounds, new lows were achieved after it.

 

Another report said that the Khap Panchayat had earlier advised not to take the episode to the police. In fact, the accused were let off with a token fine of Rs 2500, asking them to “wash off their sins” in Pushkar.

Apparently, they have also been asked to give a tractor full of fodder for cow, 5 tankers of water and one sack vegetable.

That’s it? Is this the current market price of a life? That and a dip in the holy water, and one can be absolved from the sins of murder? I don’t know about you but this sends chills down my spine. It is high time we open our eyes to the killer that superstition is!

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