Incident Reports

50-year-old woman brutally beaten by her relatives over witchcraft allegations

2021-08-01

Province 1, Sunsari, Inaruwa

Three women brutally beat their 50-year-old relative Mithila Sardar (name changed)  over witchcraft allegations when she was alone at her home in Inarwa on August 1. She was dragged by her hair to a temple one and a half kilometres away from her house. The villagers did not even retaliate against the incident.

This was not the first time that she was assaulted on witchcraft charges. As a single woman, she was beaten by her neighbours decades ago on the same allegations. The incident was resolved in the village itself. This time, she went to the police station with her family members to lodge a complaint. But the police refused to take the complaint for three days. After she and her family did not back down, on the fourth day in the presence of the people's representative of the ward and the locals, the incident was resolved after the perpetrator agreed to apologize.


Details and Impacts
Violent / Non-violent Violent
Onesided / Twosided Onesided
Collective / Interpersonal Interpersonal
Primary Form Assault (small group)
Weapons None
Primary Cause Extra-judicial response on basis of witchcraft allegations
Actor 1 - Number of people 3
Actor 1 - Affiliations Family/relative
Actor 1 - Youth na
Actor 2 - Number of people 1
Actor 2 - Affiliation (Target) Family/relative
Actor 2 - Youth noyouth
Total Injured 1
Female Injured 1
National/Online Media

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