Mother Daughter killed
She kept begging someone to help her. The neighbours shut their doors. Some kept peeping out of their windows but no one helped or interfered. Neighbours living just a few metres from the victims’ house either say they were not present that day or that they have just recently moved to the place.
Mother Daughter killed
At Baralagra, a village in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, the two victims belonged to a relatively well-off family of four—two daughters, a mother and a son. The husband had died a few years back and the family was primarily run by the two women.
On 22 September 2009, the two left their home early morning to sell hadya, a rice beer made locally in Jharkhand villages. While on their way back home at 7 or 8 pm, the daughter said she would be going to a nearby tola (hamlet) to sell the remaining hadya. The mother walked back home alone. The unpaved roads to her village have bicycle tyre marks, the only source of transportation in the interiors.
The mother was oblivious of an ambush at her house. As soon as she stepped into the compound, some men threw a rope on her and strangled her. It took less than a few seconds. She didn’t utter a word or cry, and died on the spot. After strangulating her, some of the men squeezed her neck with their hands to ensure she was dead. The mother’s body was dragged for a few kilometres, lifted on the shoulder for the rest, and then dropped under a rock in a nearby jungle, 8km from her house. The decomposed body was found only after two of the villagers involved in the killing helped the police trace it.
Nearly an hour later, when the daughter reached home, she saw the group, including eight women and two relatives. She started shouting and crying out, pulling at the sleeves of the men, but they shook her loose. She kept begging someone to help her. The neighbours shut their doors. Some kept peeping out of their windows but no one helped or interfered. Neighbours living just a few metres from the victims’ house either say they were not present that day or that they have just recently moved to the place.
A few hours before the double murders, the villagers had held a meeting where they had decided to kill the women, blaming them for the deaths of an elderly man, a young man and two cows.