Three members of a family were hacked to death after being abducted over suspicions of practising witchcraft, in Jharkhand.

The incident took place in the tribal-dominated Kuda village in Khunti district of Jharkhand. The police recovered the torsos of the three victims – Birsa Munda (48), his wife Sukru Purty (43) and their younger daughter Somwari Purty (20) from a forest area from a pit, while their heads were found at another isolated place later, reported The Hindustan Times.

Khunti SP Ashutosh Shekhar told the media that they were allegedly abducted by some villagers 23 days ago. Three of the nine suspects identified as Soma Munda, Raghu Munda and Bishram Munda, have reportedly confessed to the crime.

The trio was reported missing since October 7. However, the incident came into light on October 12, after the married daughter of the couple, Telani complained about her missing parents and younger sister.

Telani, along with her husband, had visited her parents’ house on October 8 but found half-open, while none of them was in the house.

She inquired about them from neighbours but got no lead, and finally approached the police. Telani raised suspicion against a few villagers over allegedly abducting them over some land dispute.

According to the report, the trio went missing shortly after an incident that was reported from the same village a month ago. A woman had delivered a baby, but the infant died after a few days. The death of the baby was allegedly due to the witchcraft practised by the deceased’s family. Munda and his family went missing shortly after this.

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