3 held for killing a man on suspicion of practising witchcraft

Police today arrested three persons on charges of killing a 27-year-old man on suspicion of practising witchcraft.
The incident took place around 15 days ago at Mitrapur village under the jurisdiction of Digapahandi police station in Ganjam district.
Madhab Mallick (Mitu), a resident of Sarakata village, Raghunath Mallick and Madhab Mallick (Madhab) both residents of Mitrapur village were remanded to judicial custody for allegedly killing Niranjan Mallick, a resident of Mitrapur on August 25, said Debasish Mohanty, inspector in-charge of Digapahandi police station.
Police said some more persons were also involved in the killing and they would be nabbed soon.

Raids were conducted in different places to nab them, a police officer said.
The arrested persons did not reveal any other names, he said.

The accused persons had invited the victim to attend Ganesh puja on August 25, the police officer said.
Instead, they took the victim to a nearby jungle and killed him, he said.
A stone was used to kill the victim, police said.
The police recovered the victim's body from the jungle on August 29.
The body was sent for postmortem.
The accused persons suspected that the victim practised witchcraft in the village, police said.