Five members of the same family were killed in Tetgama village in the Bihar state, India, in early July after being accused of witchcraft, BBC News reported.
A mob, which witnesses said included 150-200 people, from the village outside the family’s home at around 10 p.m. on the night of July 6. The collective was reportedly outraged and insistent that members of the family had been practising witchcraft and caused the untimely death of a relative.
Five members of the family were killed, including 71-year-old widow Kato Oraon.
One witness, given the alias of Manisha Devi by BBC News, recounted how she heard a ruckus outside the home of the Oraon family’s oldest son Babulal.
Oraon, his wife Sita Devi, the couple's son Manjit, and daughter-in-law Rani Devi were slain by the mob, though the youngest son, a teenager, survived.
Police named Ramdev Oraon as the main accuser and are still working to locate him. Four people have been arrested, including an exorcist, though police are still hunting for those involved.
Ramdev allegedly claimed Kato Devi and her family had killed his son, who died 10 days prior to the murders.
Ramdev’s son was reportedly feeling unwell, and the village’s exorcist was performing a ritual before he perished. Both Manisha Devi and the surviving teenage son told police the exorcist "pronounced Kato Devi and Babulal's wife Sita Devi as witches, blaming them for the death and illness in Ramdev's family."
"Kato was dragged out and given half an hour to heal the sick teenager. Sita Devi, who was away visiting her mother in a neighbouring village, was called and asked to return if she wanted to see her family alive," she added.
The teenage son would later tell police of how he fled, hiding in the darkness, and watched his family beaten and burned.
"The mob was armed with sticks, rods, and sharp weapons. They tied all five victims with a rope and dragged them to the village pond, assaulting and abusing them all the way," the police complaint said. The family was then doused with petrol and burned.
District Magistrate Anshul Kumar said it was unclear from the post-mortem if the family had still been alive when they were set alight.
"The report indicates evidence of burn injuries and assault; however, it does not clearly articulate the precise cause of death, whether it was due to burning or whether that occurred post-murder,” Kumar said.
Witchcraft accusations in India
The accusation of witchcraft has led to 2,500 people, the majority women, being murdered in India from 2000-2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Mira Devi, a local social worker, told the BBC that a key component to the murders was that rural villages often lacked adequate education or access to healthcare professionals, leaving them susceptible and reliant on superstition.
Advocates told The New York Times in 2023, following a similar incident, that accusations of witchcraft had often been used as a means of social control in rural communities - particularly targeting women.
In Jharkhand, a woman was reportedly attacked by four men after being accused of witchcraft. She told the NYT it was because she had refused the sexual advances of a man.
After the initial attack, the woman explained she was ostracized from the village, and a fence was built around her house to prevent her from wandering. She was later blamed for the death of a cow.