4 Tribals Lynched to death

On the unfortunate night of July 20, 2019 at around 3 am, the residents of Siskari village in Sisai block of Gumla district, around 110 km west of Ranchi, the state capital, lynched four elderly tribal people, branding them as witches. The mob attack was planned after a tribal priest blamed "witchcraft" by one of the victims for the death of a boy three weeks ago. The priest pinned the blame for his illness on one of the lynching victims, Suna Oraon (65). The other three victims in the attack early on Sunday were Chapa Oraon (65), his wife Phiri Devi (62) and Phagni Devi (60). The villagers had contacted a tribal priest Sushila Nayak, a self-proclaimed woman sorceress, from Burmu on the outskirts of Ranchi, who allegedly told them that there were ghosts in the village. She also accused the victims of inviting trouble for the village by taking their goats to graze at a devi sthan (religious site). Thereafter, the villagers held another meeting on Saturday night before deciding to kill the four. About a dozen people forcibly entered the houses of three families in the village and dragged them out near the village Anganwadi Centre, where they were beaten brutally with sticks and sharp weapons.