Suspected of witchcraft, villagers forced to consume urine in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Four villagers were forced to consume urine and were also fined Rs 2500 each on suspicions of witchcraft in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh.
The incident took place in the tribal dominated Salegadh village, under the jurisdiction of Chapara police station.
A group of villagers called a sorcerer from nearby Chhindwara district who performed rituals and made four villagers consume urine to ensure that they will not be able to do witchcraft on others.
Earlier, two villagers died in Salegadh village on September 10 and 12 due to snake bites, said police.
“The post-mortem of those died in September has also confirmed that they died of snake bites,” Chapara police station incharge, N K Pandey told TOI.
But the locals suspected five persons - Kamal Uikey, 55, Uma Shankar Uike, 28, Kunwarlal Uike, 55, Hariram Marskole, 55 and Ram Singh, 40 - of killing the two villagers who died of snake bites, by doing witchcraft and believed that these five people became snakes by some black magic and killed the two in September.
On October 4, the five were summoned at a designated place in the village. However, one of the five victims, Hariram, went missing as soon as he was summoned even as the other four of reached the spot where they were summoned. The sorcerer then performed rituals and forced them to consume urine.
The matter came to light when the son of Hariram, the villager who went missing on October 4, lodged a missing person report with the police on October 11.
“All the four were penalized by the sorcerer with a fine of Rs 2500. But only two of them have paid the money while the others did not have any money. Victims are alleging that they were forced to consume urine and have given samples of the liquid which they were made to consume. It will be examined in laboratories. As of now, we are investigating the matter,” Pandey said.