Assamese woman held captive by family over suspicion of being possessed

(Reported by Anjanil Kashyap)

Guwahati: A bed-ridden woman in Assam's Kokrajhar district was held captive by her own family members as they feared that she was possessed by an evil spirit.

The 28-year-old woman, Akali Rabha, who is a widow, was bed-ridden for several months.

According to her family, the woman was behaving strangely for sometimes and, one day, she started murmuring while still lying on her bed.

Perplexed over the woman's strange behaviour, her family members thought that she was possessed by an evil spirit. Fearing for their safety, the family held her captive in a fishing net for over 24 hours.

The incident took place in the remote Nalapani village, which is far from the Kokrajhar district of Assam.

The Nalapani village lies under the Kokrajhar district which is dominated by the Bodo-Rabha community. 

The woman is believed to be facing a lot of hardship in sustaining her family after her husband's death three-four months ago.

Unable to make both ends meet, the woman fell ill and was under severe depression from sometimes.

After hearing the woman's plea for help, some villagers alerted the local police which rescued the woman and took her to a hospital for counselling and medical help. 

Narrating her ordeal to the police, the woman admitted that she was held captive by her own family due to superstition and fear that she was haunted by an evil spirit. 

However, this is not the first incident of its kind.

In the recent past, several incidents of women being labelled as a witch or accused of practising witchcraft being mercilessly killed by villagers were reported from the backward tribal regions of Assam.

According to sociologists, single women are mostly targeted because they are weak and have no one to support or defend them.

In some other cases, a woman who does not marry or is widowed is usually entitled to her father’s or husband’s property. In an attempt to get hold of her property, jealous relatives or villagers sometimes resort of such tactics of branding the woman as a witch or possessed.

Women who refuse to give sexual favours are also branded as 'dayans' in some cases.