Dumka, Sept 25 (PTI) Four members of a family, including three women, were forced to consume human excreta after they were tortured with a hot iron rod in Jharkhand's Dumka district over allegation that they practiced witchcraft, police said on Sunday.

The incident happened in Aswari village in Sariyahat police station area, they said.

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"The inhuman torture of the four people started on Saturday night and continued till Sunday. Some villagers first thrashed them after branding them witches," said Saryahat police station in-charge Vinay Kumar.

"Thereafter, they filled human excreta in a bottle and forced them to consume it. Parts of their bodies were also burnt with a hot iron rod," he said.

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After receiving information about the incident, a police team went to the village on Sunday and rescued the victims, he added.

They were admitted to the community health centre in Saryahat.

"The doctors, however, referred two of them to a hospital in Deoghar for better treatment as their conditions were serious," the police officer said.

A police case has been lodged against six people and a hunt is on to nab them, he said.

Torture on suspicion of witchcraft is a predominant social evil in the state. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 590 people, mostly women, were killed over this between 2001 and 2020.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)