Woman branded witch, beheaded in Assam

Guwahati: A 50-year-old woman branded a witch by her neighbours in the village was beheaded in an incident at Barkhuli in Tezpur in northern Assam’s Sonitpur district on Tuesday. Four persons were immediately apprehended by the police in the connection by police.
Police said the victim, Faguni Kabari, was allegedly beheaded by her neighbours after accusing her of practising black magic.
Faguni had reportedly ran into trouble with her neighbours, Rafael and Sanjay Surin, over a chicken theft incident in which the woman had accused her neighbours of stealing her poultry.
Two members of the Surin family had died following their feud with Faguni and they were quick to accuse the woman of casting spells on the family thereby causing the tragedy in the family.
Police suspected that her feud with the Surin family led to murder of Falguni who was branded a witch by the neighbours.
Rafael and Sanjay, along with two others, have been apprehended by the police on charges of killing Faguni.
Meanwhile, in a separate by similar incident a 60-year-old man, Danda Gogoi, was rescued by police from his residence in Lakhimpur after the villagers had kept him under ‘house-arrest’ since Saturday on charges of practicing black magic. The village headman had alerted the police on Tuesday morning, leading to the rescue of the person.
Assam government in the last Monsoon session of the state Assembly enacted a stringent law to deal with the malady of witch hunting that has been bane of life among a section of tribals and Adivasi villagers in many far flung parts of the state.