Agartala : Two women were killed in southern Tripura following which a woman who practised black magic and her husband have been arrested, police said here on Friday.
“Accused Shanta Majumder, 48, who has been practicing black magic for years, called Manju Sukhladas, 43, and Baby Rani Das, 40, to her home at Chandrapur on Wednesday night and killed them with a sharp weapon after telling them they were possessed by ghosts,” a police official said.
He said the women’s bodies, with legs and hands tied with a rope and bearing multiple cut wounds, were found floating in a pond owned by Shanta on Thursday.
The official said Shanta’s husband Biplab Majumder had spread the story that his wife was blessed with divine powers, following which scores of villagers, specially women, began thronging their house looking for solutions to their ailments and domestic problems.
Police said both Shanta and Biplab had confessed to the crime.
In the last few years, more than 50 people, mostly women, have been tortured and beaten to death on suspicion of practising witchcraft or black magic in Tripura. This figure is much higher in Assam.
The Assam government had enacted a law last year to deal with superstitions.