TURA: The body of a young man who died shortly after he was interrogated by villagers on suspicion of being possessed by ‘evil spirits’ has been exhumed and a post mortem conducted in Bajengdoba region of North Garo Hills on Friday.
A medical team, in the presence of a magistrate, exhumed the body of 32 year old Sengra R Marak at the graveyard in Dobakkol village of Bajengdoba and doctors undertook a post mortem and inquest to ascertain the cause of his death.
The order for exhuming the body was taken after police registered a case of murder following the death of the young man early September 15th morning.
“We registered a suo moto case after coming to know about the incident. We are now awaiting the post mortem report,” informed North Garo Hills district police chief Billy Graham Marak.
So far no one has been arrested and police are investigating the case.
The young victim, who was engaged to be married by the end of the year, had been ailing for some time in his village. He was reportedly suffering from very high fever probably caused by a bout of pneumonia and was mumbling in his sleep, due to the intense pain, when villagers suspected him of being possessed by spirits.
Seeing his condition some villagers and relatives came to a conclusion that he was being possessed by an evil spirit and decided to take matters onto their own hands. On Saturday night, as the young man lay in pain from the illness, they reportedly brought a traditional medicine man (Oja) and began questioning him for several hours after covering him with a mosquito net to keep a check on the ‘spirit’.
“They believed that he was possessed and so they began to question him believing that it was not him but the spirit which was replying. He was left exhausted from the events and by early morning passed away. Their mistake was not taking him to a hospital,” said a village elder who spoke to this scribe and asked that he not be named.
Ignorance and belief in witchcraft is widely prevalent in many rural areas of Garo Hills. Four years ago, an entire family of a school teacher was murdered and buried in a shallow grave by villagers of Mrigre in Rongram region of west Garo Hills. The teacher and his parents were accused by a group of villagers of practicing sorcery but subsequent investigation pointed to greed for possession of their land by some unscrupulous villagers.