Kokrajhar Witch Hunting Case: Six people including Village Headman arrested

Kokrajhar: Kokrajhar Police on Saturday arrested six people for their alleged involvement in connection to the witch-hunting case in Jornagra Part-1 village.

As per police reports, one Bhodreswar Rabha his wife Puleswari Rabha, son Ajit, daughter-in-law and two years old grandson were outcast and ordered to leave the village within a week on Friday.

It has also come to light that the villagers on Thursday last held a meeting in the village where a resolution was adopted to outcast the family accusing them of practicing black magic in the jungles of the village and even forced to sign a paper to leave the village.

Later, Kokrajhar police visited the village and started an investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, police on Saturday arrested the gaonbura (village headman) Karan Rabha (56), Nitai Rabha (48), Marun Rabha (42), Rangor Rabha (30), Shameshwar Rabha (30) Pundur Rabha (65).

A case has been registered in connection to the matter (Case No 382/2019) under section 4(i)(ii)/7/9(ii)/10/11 of the Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015.

Furthermore, the police are being carried out through investigation into the matter.

Witch-Hunting

A witch-hunt or a witch purge is a search for people who have been labelled "witches" or a search for evidence of witchcraft, and it often involves a moral panic or mass hysteria. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial North America took place in the Early Modern period or about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 100,000 executions, with the most recent estimate at 40,000. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from Sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon today.

In current language, "witch-hunt" metaphorically means an investigation that is usually conducted with much publicity, supposedly to uncover subversive activity, disloyalty and so on, but really to weaken political opposition.

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