Patna: A 70-year-old Dalit woman’s tongue was chopped off after she was branded a witch in a Bihar village in Rohtas district, police said on Monday.
Rajkali Devi was attacked in Redia village with weapons and a part of her tongue was cut off leaving her seriously injured, Tilauthu police station in-charge Pramod Kumar said.
The widowed woman was admitted to a hospital and an FIR was registered on Sunday based on the complaint by her granddaughter.
The granddaughter, who was sleeping next to Rajkali Devi, at the time of the attack said three villagers forcibly entered their house late on Saturday and chopped off her grandmother’s tongue, accusing her of practising witchcraft.
A manhunt was underway to nab the culprits.
Branding women as witches and torturing them — often to death — continues to prevail in parts of rural Bihar.
The Bihar Human Rights Commission had been asking the government to expedite probes and trials in cases related to offences under the Prevention of Witch Hunting Act, 1999.