NEW DELHI: Police in the western state of Rajasthan are on the lookout for six persons who have been accused of torturing a 30-year-old woman after branding her as a witch. Police in Rajasthan's Tonkdistrict said that, the accused led by one Rup Narayan from the Unaira village, said that the woman was first tortured with red hot tongs and then stripped and tied to an overhead pole late on Thursday night. The victim, who hascomplained to the Tonk police has said that she had been publicly humiliated by Ru Narayan along with his other family members, who had stripped her in front of the villages and then tortured her. “I was left to die on the pole where they tied me. Only when someone say me in the morning they untied me and I could come to the police,” the victim said in her statement to the Tonk police. Witch hunting in India is a common occurrence in the rural parts of the county, especially in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, etc. In rural villages in these states, the witch doctor locally known as ojhas are credited to branding of women as witches and later paid goods like rice, animals, and money to rid the woman possessed by the witch-spirit. Very often, resolute women who spurn sexual advances by the village men or are landed by way of inheritance or have no male relatives to look after them are branded as witches by the vested interests and ostracized from the other villagers. A state like Rajasthan which has had recurring witch-hunting incidents has come up with a draft Rajasthan Women (Prevention and Protection from Atrocities) Bill, 2011, to tackle witch-branding.
