CUTTACK: Alarming rise in violence, atrocities and killings on the superstitions of witchcraft in the State has drawn the attention of the Orissa High Court which has sought the response of the State Government on the issue. A Division Bench of Chief Justice V Gopalagowda and Justice BN Mohapatra has issued notice to the Government directing it to submit its response within two weeks. The directions came following admission of a PIL filed by Bhubaneswar-based social activist Sashiprava Bindhani seeking enactment of a law and issuing of guidelines by the Government to curb the rising incidents of atrocities on women on charges of being witches or practising witchcraft. The PIL was filed on the basis of a report on superstitious killings published in the TNIE on May 29 detailing the murder of innocent women by branding them as witches and warlocks.While bringing facts to the notice of the Court, the petitioner alleged that women were not only being subjected to ostracisation on witchcraft charges, they were put to gruesome torture and punishment. Murders and killing on the superstition were becoming rampant in the rural tribal pockets.Bindhani stated that there was no law against such a criminal activity as a result of which more and more people were falling victims and the culprits walking scot-free. Neighbouring states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, where such superstitions have been prevalent, have enacted strong laws to contain the social ill but Orissa Government is still blind to the problem, she said.As per the report, between 2007 and May 2011, more than 20 incidents of killings and brutalities over sorcery had occurred in the State. Around 40 people had been murdered on account of the superstition even as beating up of suspects, parading them naked and forcing them to eat human and animal excreta have become a common phenomenon.
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