23 May,2011 07:46 AM IST | | Agencies
Eleven people stormed into a house in a village in Raipur district and assaulted a woman they accused of witchcraft, blinding her and her husband by stabbing them in the eyes with scissors, the police said. The police have arrested 10 suspects.
A family in Khaira village had been having money troubles and health problems, which they blamed on a 45-year-old woman, according to SS Baghel, a local police officer. "The accused blamed the alleged evil power of the lady for their problems and raided her house on Friday morning," Baghel said. "First they beat her up and then a few of them held her hands and legs and then pierced her eyes with scissors."
When her husband tried to intervene, the group turned on him and pierced his eyes as well, Baghel added. A doctor at a local hospital said the couple would likely never be able to see again. The brutalities related to witchcraft, mainly against women, are not new for the interior illiterate pockets of Chhattisgarh, where woman accused of witchcraft are often killed or paraded naked.
Chhattisgarh passed the Witchcraft (Prevention) Act in 2005 to crack down on offenders. But the law has hardly made an impact in tribal areas, where atrocities against women accused of witchcraft still flourish and the majority of cases go unreported.
