New Delhi: In a bid to tackle the barbaric practice of witchcraft-related killings in Odisha, the state law commission has proposed amendments to the Odisha Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2013, with a view to making the law more stringent and focused on the rehabilitation of victims.
The draft amendment, which is slated for release during the winter session of the state legislative assembly, has not been released publicly as of now, Additional Secretary of the Odisha Law Commission Gangadhar Sethi told ThePrint.
“It has been shared with the state government and is still under consideration as of now,” Sethi said.
The state law commission, headed by former Orissa High Court judge Biswanath Rath, was set up a little less than a year ago, in December 2024, to suggest improvements to state laws and to repeal obsolete ones. It also included senior advocates like Surya Prakash Mishra and Soura Chandra Mohapatra, along with Advocate General Pitambar Acharya and Law Secretary Manas Ranjan Barik.
More recently, in January this year, the Orissa High Court, while acting on a case where three women were murdered on accusations of practicing witchcraft, noted, “Even though we are in the 21st century, the old superstitions of witch-hunting are still alive in some parts of rural areas of our country mainly on account of lack of education.”
Underlining that this practice leads to innocent individuals, often women, being subjected to persecution, torture and even gruesome murders based on unfounded accusations of practicing witchcraft, the court noted that such women are also publicly targeted.
“The case in hand depicts a sordid state of affairs where accusations of practicing witchcraft led to commission of triple murder of Asina Sabar, Amabaya Sabar and Ashamani Sabar in village Kitum in the evening hours of 9 September, 2016,” the court noted in its order.
What is the 2013 Act?
Introduced in 2013, the Odisha Prevention of Witch Hunting Act came into force a year later to prohibit the witch-hunting practice in Odisha.
The law defined a “witch” as a woman who is locally known as ‘Dahani’ or ‘Dayan’, and has been identified by anyone who believes she possesses any “evil power” that could harm others or their property.
Under the law, witchcraft is defined as the use of supernatural or magical power with the “evil intention” of calling up spirits or casting spells.
Moreover, this includes similar practices involving supernatural powers, locally known as ‘Guni’, ‘Jhada Phunka’, ‘Cot Bidya’, ‘Bata Bidya’, ‘Kula Bidya’ or ‘Nakha Darpana’.
In 2017, the state’s home department noted that even though the 2013 Act provided for stringent punishments, instances of witch-hunting had still come to the government’s notice.
Lack of awareness, superstition and deep-rooted beliefs were found to be some of the key causes behind this practice.
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Penal provisions
The Odisha law also punishes witchcraft or similar practices, with intent to cause harm or injury to another, with up to three years imprisonment and a minimum Rs 5,000 fine.
The act also penalises Gunias or Tantriks, described as “witch doctors”, who claim or are believed to have supernatural or magical power to control or cure a witch. This includes performing rituals to free women from evil spirits or to bless them with children.
The act punishes acts of witch-hunting with anywhere between one and five years imprisonment, a minimum fine of Rs 1,000, or both.
It describes witch-hunting as “identifying, accusing or defaming a woman as a witch” or harassing, harming or injuring her, mentally or physically. It could also include damaging a woman’s property.
The provision also specifies that while those who aid or abet cases of witch-hunting can get up to three years imprisonment, those directly forcing a woman to drink or eat an inedible or poisonous substance, or parading her with a painted face or body, while labelling her a witch, can get up to five years imprisonment along with a fine.
For repeat offenders, the act has imposed more stringent punishments for these offences, which go up to seven years of imprisonment and fines of up to Rs 10,000.
What attempts have been made to tackle this?
In April 2017, the Odisha government’s home department came up with a ‘Composite Action Plan to Prevent Witchcraft’ developed in consultation with different departments to take strong measures to curb the crime and create awareness among citizens against such blind beliefs.
The plan proposed story-based lessons for students on the evils of witch-hunting to be developed and included in the school syllabus in appropriate classes for the year 2017-18; massive awareness drives through street plays, road shows by NGOs, folk songs and dance, and health awareness programmes in witch-hunting-prone areas by the health workers.
Under the plan, when a police officer receives credible information or report of that witch hunt is likely to occur or there are reasonable grounds to believe that a witch hunt has taken place against a woman, they are required to proceed to the spot and take suitable measures to prevent the witch hunt and to provide protection to the victim, including getting her admitted to a shelter home if necessary.
Since the alleged offence is cognizable and non-bailable, the police officer shall register a case and act as per law, the state government also said.
How have courts viewed this practice?
In the State of Orissa vs. Mangulu Munda case, the Orissa High Court in June 2023 upheld the acquittal of the accused individuals in a murder case linked to witchcraft. It granted them the benefit of the doubt, saying the evidence failed to meet the requisite standards for conviction.
The state government had challenged their acquittal by a trial court as the accused had barged into a woman’s house, broken her door, accused her of witchcraft and dragged her out.
The woman, who later passed away, went missing five days later. The accused confessed to a police sub-inspector that they killed her and threw her body in the river Baitarani. The court acquitted them since it said there were discrepancies and gaps in the eyewitness testimonies.
Prior to that, the Orissa HC in the 2020 case of Jitu Murmu vs. State of Odisha, noted that the practice of witchcraft “is still very active in the 21st century” despite “science and scientific temper having reached its pinnacle”.
“The fact remains, in the absence of a central legislation it has resulted in lack of uniformity in the application of law across the country. The provisions of the Indian Penal Code, although applicable for the crime associated with the menace, have not proved to be as effective in deterring these criminals,” the court noted.
The court noted that the pattern of the perpetrators of the crime had a lot of similarities, like the uneducated and economically weaker sections usually ending up as soft targets. The court recognised the need to raise awareness among such vulnerable sections and to challenge primitive beliefs and mindsets.
As far back as 1991, the Supreme Court in the Gaurav Jain v. State of Bihar case was cognizant of the widespread menace of witch-hunting and directed the state to take steps to curb the menace by setting up a special cell in each of the districts vulnerable to such practices.
In 2012, a two-judge bench of the Orissa High Court, while ruling in the Sashiprava Bindhani vs State of Orissa case, issued guidelines on the menace of witch-hunting and witchcraft in the state.
They included directing authorities to undertake public awareness programmes in gram panchayats to eradicate the superstition of witchcraft, setting up health camps in different villages to detect cases of people with psychological disorders that may lead to false accusations of witchcraft, and recording statements of witnesses in cases involving witch-hunting allegations.
A year later, the state government came out with the 2013 law, which codified some of these guidelines.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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