Statesman News Service
MALDA, Oct. 31: Acting on a tip off, a soothsayer (Janguru) Bishnu Seal was arrested from his residence located under Chakulia police station in North Dinajpur last night on charges of witch hunting.
This is being considered as a great breakthrough on the part of the Malda police as the soothsayer, allegedly responsible for several witch-hunting cases in the district as well as in the north Bengal region, had been evading police for a long time. Gazole police is still on the look out for a woman soothsayer who is supposedly in South Dinajpur at present.
Sources said that police had rescued three people including a woman belonging to Paharia community from the clutches of a group of locals at Kotwali who had hatched a plan to kill them after branding them as ‘witches’ on 27 October.
Villagers collectively attacked the residence of Nagen Pahari, Rabi Pahari and Shanti Pahari after they were identified as ‘witches’ by the soothsayer Bishnu Seal. Police have traced Bishnu going by the information collected while interrogating a number of people detained in connection with the recent witch hunting case at Kotowali. Police produced Bishnu Seal in the court today and appealed to remand him for at least five days for more interrogation to get details about his network in north Bengal.
Commenting on the matter the inspector in charge, English Bazaar police station, Mr Bipul Majumdar said that people from far flung areas in the north Bengal region had been accustomed to consulting Bishnu on domestic problems. “He kept exploiting the gullible, uneducated tribal people and amassed a huge wealth in the process,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment