Jajpur: An elderly couple was expelled from their village by a kangaroo court for allegedly practicing sorcery. The incident was reported from Natore village under Kalipani police station area in Jajpur district.
Punta Murmu and Thakura Murmu were forcibly driven out of their house by fellow villagers, and were warned that they would be killed if they return.
Shockingly, the couple’s son Hadibandhu Murmu and his wife supported the kangaroo court’s decision.
Sources said the villagers suspected the elderly couple was practicing sorcery, and believed that was the reason for diseases spreading in the village.
They consulted a black magician, and he claimed the couple was an ‘evil omen,’ and that they should be expelled from the village.
An oral cancer patient, Rabi Soren (46), of the village also claimed the couple’s ‘sorcery’ was responsible for his illness.
Believing this, the superstitious villagers called a meeting, and decided to expel the couple from the village. The villagers threatened to set them and their house afire if they did not leave.
The couple is now living like nomads, wandering from place to place. They cannot even meet their relatives out of fear for their lives.
Earlier, they had built a temporary thatched hut on government land near the village. However, the villagers threatened them again, and they are now living in the Sukinda area.
The couple said there was a threat to their lives and requested the administration to get them back their ancestral land and house.
PNN