Purnia (Bihar) [India], July 8 (HBTV): Three main accused, including a minor, have been arrested after five members of a family were allegedly burnt alive on July 6 in Titgaon village of Bihar’s Purnia district, in a suspected case of witchcraft-related violence.

Purnia District Magistrate Anshul Kumar visited the village following the incident. He said, ‘This incident happened on 6th July. At night, five people were beaten up and burned alive. Yesterday, the police and administration recovered all the bodies. The post-mortem has been done, and the last rites have been performed. A case has been registered against around 23 named accused. An FIR has also been registered against 150–200 unidentified people. The police have caught the main accused... In regard to this case, three people have been caught, of whom one is a minor.’

Pankaj Kumar Sharma, SDPO Sadar Purnia, said, ‘We received information at 5 am from one Sonu (16) that, in the name of black magic and witchcraft, members of the Oraon community killed five members of his family. Police reached the spot and recovered all five charred bodies. Three people have been arrested. Others remain unidentified, and the investigation is ongoing. People from the entire village were involved.’

A resident told ANI, ‘It looks like many people from the village were involved in this. Currently, the village is deserted; people have fled from here. We want justice.’

Lalit Kumar, whose father, mother, brother, sister-in-law and grandmother were allegedly killed, said he could not believe what had happened. He said his brother had called him at night to say the family members were being burnt alive, but he was unable to return that night.

‘My brother called me and told me that the family members were being burnt, and where I was, I could not come from there. When I came in the morning, I came to know and I could not believe that it was true. There were five people – my father, mother, brother, sister-in-law and grandmother. The people of the village together burnt them,’ Lalit told ANI.

In a separate incident that occurred on the same day, two children were killed during a clash between two groups in Dumrawan village, Nalanda district.

Commenting on the recent surge in violence, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) President Chirag Paswan said on Monday that law and order in Bihar had ‘completely collapsed’, raising concerns over the murders in Nalanda.

(ANI)