Woman thrashed to death for practising witchcraft in Nepal

Kathmandu: A 45-year-old woman was thrashed to death by locals for allegedly practising witchcraft on a girl in southern Nepal, police said.

Parbatidevi Chaudhary who was a resident of Parsa district, was assaulted by a group of villagers on the charge of casting `evil spell` on her neighbour`s daughter Pratibha, police said. Despite a hue and cry the villagers showed no remorse and beat her to death on Thursday night. The family members of Parbatidevi lodged a complaint with the police yesterday. The neighbours also threatened Sunkeshari, 21-year-old daughter of Parbatidevi, for reporting the incident to the police. Locals had decided to expel Parbatidevi from the village accusing her of making Jagdish Chaudhary`s daughter Pratibha sick with her `black magic`. Pratibha`s mother Paspati Devi, her son and some other villagers had taken Parbatidevi to a rice mill near the village and thrashed her to death. The police held Paspati Devi, Sima Kumari and Renu Devi for interrogation on Friday. The family received the body of Parbatidevi yesterday after postmortem. Bhagawan, the husband of Parbatidevi said that he could not report the incident immediately as "he was taken hostage by the villagers involved in his wife`s murder". PTI