Keonjhar: Keonjhar district court’s additional judge, Mamita Dash convicted Tuesday seven people of Sendakap village under Sadar police limits for their involvement in murdering a man under suspicion of practising witchcraft and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The judge also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of the convicts. In default they all will have to undergo another six months of rigorous imprisonment, the judge said in the order.
The convicts were identified as Rabindra Munda, 36, Narahari Munda, 28, Balabhadra Munda, 40, Baisakhu Munda, 24, Cheema Munda, 25, Tima Munda, 33 and Tura Munda, 30. As per the case diary, the convicts suspected that Dinabandhu Munda, 65, of the same village was practicing witchcraft. They called Dinabandhu to the village Anganwadi centre April 14, 2019 and attacked him with sharp weapons killing him on the spot. The attackers then fled the scene. The daughter-in-law of the deceased, Sunita Munda lodged a written complaint at Sadar police station in this regard.
A case (No-180/2019) under IPC act 302/34 was registered and police after arresting all the accused produced them in court. The judge pronounced the judgement after hearing 13 witnesses and going through the police investigation report, informed additional public prosecutor Prafulla Kumar Patra