An Assam court has sentenced six men to life imprisonment for the 1995 murder of an 80-year-old woman in Kamrup (Rural) district, who was beaten and burnt alive after being accused of practising witchcraft, prosecutors said.
As per police records, Maria Boro, a resident of Bordangerikuchi village, was murdered by a group of locals. A case was subsequently registered at Baihata Chariali Police Station. Police identified the accused as Soneswar Boro, Jungle Boro, Suraj Boro, Kandura Boro, Hareshwar Boro and Dhanla Boro. All of them were residents of the same village where Maria lived.
The incident happened at Bordangerikuchi village under Baihata Chariali Police Station in Kamrup (Rural) district in 1995, when a group of men beat the woman, set her ablaze and later buried her half-burnt body near her house, according to the prosecutors. The victims were identified as Gardi Birowa, 43, and his wife Mira Birowa, 33.
Police said the couple were attacked inside their house before it was set on fire.
The prosecutors said that after the initial investigation, police registered a case against the six under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting while carrying a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 448 (house-trespass) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Rangia Additional Sessions and District Judge’s Court started hearing the case in 2013, and several arguments took place during the proceedings. “On the final day, the court Judge Mukul Chetia found all these six accused guilty and sentenced them for life under 302 of IPC. Additionally, five years of imprisonment was awarded under Section 201,” prosecutors said.
