GUWAHATI: In a significant development, the Kamrup district sessions judge’s court on Monday handed down life imprisonment sentences to 10 individuals in a witch-hunting case, after almost 15 years.
The incident occurred during the night of September 5, 2009, at Rajapara near the Assam-Meghalaya border in Palashbari where a couple was allegedly set ablaze by a group of people after poring kerosene on suspicion of witchcraft.
The deceased couple was identified as Bishnu Rabha and Suroshi Rabha.
The Kamrup district sessions judge’s court announced its verdict in the Palashbari police station case 199/09, convicting 10 people. Among them, four are women.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on each of the accused under sections 302 and 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code.
The court convicted Sondev Rabha, Prasen Rabha, Niku Rabha, Niranjan Rabha, Bipul Rabha, and Fatik Kachari. The female perpetrators found guilty were identified as Bicky Rabha, Urmila Rabha, Malaya Rabha, and Jaymati Rabha.
Meanwhile, the deceased couple’s son and daughter-in-law expressed their satisfaction with the court’s decision, mentioning that they had been seeking the convict’s execution.
The son also further claimed that the family members who committed the heinous crime had, on various occasions, threatened the victim’s family.
On the other hand, the state cabinet on Saturday nodded to the Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024 to prohibit magical healing.
According to the bill, any individual convicted of engaging in an illegal act under the guise of treatment or magical healing shall be punished with imprisonment and be subjected to fines.
The proposed bill aims to prohibit and eradicate the practices of magical healing purported as a treatment for certain congenital conditions such as deafness, dumbness, blindness, physical deformities, autism, and others.
The bill will enforce complete ban on such healing sessions and implement strong punitive measures against the ‘healers’ exploiting the poor and downtrodden people under the pretext of treatment.
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