Indian mob kill witch doctor, injure 2 others over rape

An angry mob in an Indian village has killed one man and wounded two others for allegedly raping and hanging a seven year old girl. The girl was discovered hanging from a tree near the village of Kaliabazar, West Bengal, early yesterday.

New York Daily News reports that after the discovery, angry villagers quickly rounded up a local 60 year old Witch doctor, Ratan Das and his two friends and beat them mercilessly. Das was said to have died in hospital while the other two’s lives lie in the balance.

The girl, according to the Bangalore Mirror, had gone to buy snacks late Wednesday but did not return home that night. Her worried father, Soumitra Barman, then alerted neighbours, who joined in the search for the girl until she was found swinging from a tree. The Times of India reports that her clothes were found ripped off and the villagers immediately suspected rape and Das was the prime suspect because he had allegedly molested several women in the past.

Policemen got to the scene and found the three men severely beaten and lying unconscious.
The case was a grim reminder of the recent gang-rape in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, where two sisters were raped and then hanged from a mango tree outside their village. The girls had gone to relieve themselves in a nearby bush since their poor families did not have a toilet.

'We are awaiting the autopsy report to confirm rape,' said a police officer. 'There was also some enmity between the families of the girl and the prime accused, Ratan Das.'

After a string of high-profile cases, India has become notorious for savage sexual attacks on often young women and girls.

About 25,000 rapes are committed every year in India, with a population of about 1.2 billion people. Many however believe the actual number was much higher since many families pressure victims not to speak about sexual assault due to the stigma it attracted.

In December 2012 there was fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus.