Jharkhand woman set on fire for witchcraft dies, one arrested

Following preliminary investigations, the police detained Soy and questioned her over the incident. She allegedly confessed to having killed the old woman as she suspected her of practicing witchcraft. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the newly-born of the accused woman had died late on Thursday night. The accused then approached the elderly woman in her house and set her afire after pouring kerosene on her. She suspected that the old woman was involved in witchcraft. “We have got the postmortem conducted of both the deceased, the newly born, as well as the old woman,” said Khunti Superintendent of Police Ashwini Kumar Sinha.

A police officer associated with the case said that the woman, in her mid-20s, whose husband was into farming, had actually given birth to twins, both sons, more than a week ago. One of them died on December 3, while the other succumbed late Thursday night. “The accused had hoped that the old woman would cure her sons. But when they did not survive, she took the step in the early hours,” said the officer, adding that the woman was arrested and sent to jail.