Jharkhand: 70-year-old woman dragged out of house, beaten to death over 'witchcraft'

A 70-year-old woman was beaten to death in Jharkhand's Garhwa district by villagers who claimed that she practiced witchcraft, police said on Tuesday.

The incident happened in Khuri village in Chiniyan police station area, they said.

A person has been taken into custody for interrogation, police said.

In a complaint, the woman's family alleged that five people dragged her at least 200 metres from her house around 8.30 pm on Sunday, and beat her to death with sticks.

"Her body has been sent for postmortem," a police officer said.

Murder on suspicion of witchcraft is a predominant social evil in the state.

As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 590 people, mostly women, were killed over this between 2001 and 2020.