Follow-up
<i>Chanmuni's 'foreteller' caught</i>
Ethnic foreteller Keitha Hasda after his arrest yesterday, and right, torture victim Chanmuni Tudu being treated at Nababganj Upazila Health Complex in Dinajpur district. Photo: STAR
Police arrested the ethnic foreteller, whose declaration of a woman as witch led to her merciless torture by superstitious villagers, from Chandipur village under Bochaganj upazila in Dinajpur district early Friday. A few days ago, the foreteller, Keitha Hasda alias Pelua Hasda identified Chanmuni Tudu, 30, wife of Laxmi Murmu, 42, of Madhabpur village under Pirganj upazila in Thakurgaon, as a witch and said she was responsible for prolonged illness of Lalmoni Tudu, 22, wife of Chunu Murmu, and several other villagers. On Sunday night Chanmuni Tudu was sleeping with her husband Laxmi Murmu when she put a hand on his chest. He got scared and started crying, saying that his wife caught him to take his live. Then the ethnic people of the village gathered at the house and started beating Chanmuni, said the victim and her parents. The villagers said Chanmuni, as she was witch, had been sucking blood from the villagers, resulting in their illness. When Chanmuni's father Baburam Tudu, mother Champa Hasda and their four relatives went to Madhabpur village on Monday night the villagers beat them up and confined them there. Hearing about the incident, reporters of different print and electronic media and lawyers went to the village on Tuesday night, organised a meeting there and explained to the villagers that their idea about the so-called 'witch' was wrong. Chanmuni's parents brought her to their house at Burimandop village in Gopalganj union under Nababganj upazila in Dinajpur on Wednesday morning and admitted her to Nobabganj Health Complex. Now Chanmuni is undergoing treatment there. On Wednesday afternoon Lalmoni Tudu was admitted to Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital where Dr Khairul Kabir, senior consultant of chest disease, identified her problem as complications in the lungs. Lalmoni died at the hospital early Friday.
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