The story to this point: The brutal murders of two ladies as a part of “ritualistic human sacrifices” in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala have left the nation in shock. According to preliminary probe, the victims have been subjected to excessive torture and sexually harassed, their physique elements minimize into a number of items earlier than they have been buried in a pit. Such chilling particulars of the killings which have emerged prior to now few days have sparked a debate concerning the prevalence of superstitious beliefs, black magic, sorcery and other evil practices in a progressive State like Kerala. And within the absence of a complete legislation to counter such inhuman acts, the call for a strict anti-superstition law has only grown louder.

The Elanthoor case

Earlier this month, three folks have been taken into custody by the Kerala Police throughout a probe in reference to a lacking individuals criticism of a girl. The interrogation led the police the to fundamental accused Mohammed Shafi alias Rasheed, a resident of Perumbavur in Ernakulam, and thru him Bhagaval Singh and his spouse Laila of Elanthoor village. During interrogation, the accused not solely confessed to having killed the lacking lady but additionally one other sufferer in an identical method in June. Following their revelations, the three have been arrested on October 11 for ‘human sacrifices’ of the 2 ladies.

The stays of the 2 ladies — Padmam, 52, and Rosli, 49 — have been exhumed from close to the couple’s home. Their our bodies have been minimize into items and buried in numerous pits in the identical property after sprinkling salt; to mislead investigators, turmeric saplings have been planted over most of those spots, an official instructed The Hindu. According to the police remand report, the breasts of certainly one of them had been chopped off and the physique of the opposite was minimize into 56 items.

As macabre particulars emerged and questions have been raised over the delayed police response, a Special Investigation Team was constituted and the accused have been despatched into judicial custody.

The investigators found that the key accused Shafi was a sexual pervert, a history sheeter with greater than ten circumstances towards him, together with rape and try and homicide. He allegedly lured the 2 ladies with the promise of cash. “Shafi derived sadistic pleasure from injuring and even killing the victims of his sexual perversion,” as per the Kochi police chief. 

While the police are probing the opportunity of ‘human sacrifices’ of extra ladies in an identical method and the involvement of extra folks, the incident has raised considerations over the rising fascination for superstitious beliefs and occult ceremonies.

What do the numbers inform?

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which maintains knowledge on crimes within the nation, offers knowledge for deaths attributable to witchcraft and human sacrifices. As per the 2021 report, six deaths were linked to human sacrifices, whereas witchcraft was the motive for 68 killings. The most variety of witchcraft circumstances have been reported from Chhattisgarh (20), adopted by Madhya Pradesh (18) and Telangana (11). Kerala noticed two circumstances of human sacrifice. In 2020, India noticed 88 deaths attributable to witchcraft and 11 died as a part of ‘human sacrifices’, as per the NCRB report.

Notably, the NCRB doesn’t present particulars of occult-related crimes within the nation. It additionally doesn’t state if the general determine contains victims of witch-hunting assaults, which have been on the rise. A personal examine by an NGO in 2021 discovered that 12 States reported circumstances of witch-branding, whereas 2,300 murders of so-called ‘witches’ have been dedicated between 1999 and 2013 throughout the nation.

What are the legal guidelines in India?

In India, there isn’t any central legislation that solely offers with crimes associated to witchcraft, superstition, or occult-inspired actions. In 2016, MP Raghav Lakhanpal launched the Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill within the Lok Sabha, but it surely wasn’t handed. The draft provisions included punishment for accusing or figuring out a girl as a witch, use of prison power towards a girl, or torture or humiliation on the pretext of performing witchcraft.

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) additionally prescribes punishment for associated crimes like abduction and homicide, but not for harming others via furthering superstitious and outdated beliefs. In the absence of a nationwide laws, a number of States have enacted legal guidelines to counter witchcraft and shield ladies from lethal ‘witch-hunting’.

Bihar (1999): Bihar was the primary State to enact a legislation to forestall witchcraft, identification of a girl as a witch and“eliminate torture, humiliation and killing of women.” The Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act got here into power in October 1999. The Act describes a witch as a “woman who has been identified as a witch by someone else, having the power or intention of harming any person through the art of black magic, evil eyes, or “mantras”” and it’s deemed that she’s going to trigger hurt to different folks or the neighborhood in any method.

Anyone who identifies an individual as a “witch” and acts to assist this identification can face a jail time period of as much as three months, or a high quality of Rs 1,000, or each. In case of bodily or psychological torture, the jail time period might be prolonged to 6 months, and the high quality to Rs. 2,000. All offences below the Act are cognisable and non-bailable.

Jharkhand (2001): Jharkhand enacted an identical legislation in 2001 — the Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act. The legislation, nevertheless, hasn’t been efficient. A doc on the Jharkhand Police web site claims that the passage of the Act “has not adequately prevented the identification and murder of women labelled as witches.”

“Given the severity of the outcomes of identification [women as witches], abetment in identification and curing of ‘witches’, which almost inevitably lead to horrific crimes being committed against the women so identified, including death, inhumane treatment, mutilation, rape and various forms of mental and physical torture, the penal provisions of the Act do not adequately punish the instigators of these crimes or prevent others from engaging…” the remark reads.

In 2021, Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, the then Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court,took suo moto cognizance of an incident the place 5 of household in Gumla have been killed after a village council sentenced them to dying on the cost of being “witches”.

“It is very unfortunate that the Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act, 1999 has been in operation since the year 1999 and the same has been adopted by the State of Jharkhand but concrete steps have not been taken to achieve the object and intent of the Act, 1999,” the Chief Justice mentioned within the March 2021 order.

Chhattisgarh (2005): Chhattisgarh is among the worst-affected States by way of witchcraft-related crimes and focused violence towards ladies. A witch is named a “tonahi” within the State. In 2005 the State enacted the Chhattisgarh Tonahi Pratadna Nivaran Act 2005 alongside the strains of Bihar and Jharkhand.

As per the legislation, an individual convicted for figuring out somebody as a witch may be sentenced to as much as three years of rigorous imprisonment with a high quality. The jail time period can lengthen as much as 5 years if the sufferer is mentally or bodily harassed. The legislation provides that when a high quality is imposed, the court docket shall consider the bodily and psychological injury precipitated to the sufferer together with the price of therapy.

Odisha (2013): Following the instructions of the Odisha High Court to border a legislation to take care of rising circumstances of witch-hunting within the State, the Odisha Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill was handed by the Assembly in 2013. The legislation contains provisions of imprisonment as much as seven years and a penalty for offenders. The invoice additionally offers for apenalty for a witch physician, or an individual claiming to be a black magician.

Earlier this yr, the Odisha State Commission for Women (SCW) sought stringent provisions in the existing Act after finding them inadequate. The panel demanded each jail and pecuniary punishment for individuals discovered concerned in sorcery-related crimes.

Maharashtra (2013): The Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and different Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013 was handed after the homicide of anti-superstition activist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar the identical yr. Dr. Dabholkar headed the anti-superstition outfit Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS).

The legislation was enacted to “bring social awakening and awareness in the society and to create a healthy and safe social environment with a view to protect the common people in the society against the evil and sinister practices…” 

It enlists provisions for the prevention and eradication of human sacrifice and different inhuman practices. Punishment below the act is imprisonment of not lower than six months and as much as seven years, with a high quality of not lower than Rs 5,000 and as much as Rs 50,000.

Rajasthan (2015): The State enacted the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, 2015 to “provide for effective measures to tackle the menace of witch-hunting and prevent the practice of witchcraft.” The legislation prohibits witch-hunting and practising witchcraft. The punishment for crimes talked about within the Act goes as much as a jail time period of not lower than one yr and as much as seven years with a high quality of not lower than Rs. 50,000.

An individual claiming to have supernatural or magical powers to regulate or treatment a witch may be punished with rigorous imprisonment from one to 3 years, with a high quality not lower than Rs 10,000. An individual who performs a ritual to free a girl from an evil spirit can resist three years in jail.

All these discovered concerned within the unnatural dying of a girl attributable to witch-hunting may be despatched to jail for seven years, extendable to imprisonment for all times. They might also be fined as much as Rs 1 lakh.

Assam (2015): The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015, which obtained the President’s assent in 2018, offers for the entire prohibition of witch searching. “No person shall identify, call, stigmatise, defame or accuse any other person as witch by words, or by signs or indications or by conducts or actions or any other manner or instigate, aid or abet such an act or commit witch hunting,” the legislation states.

Punishment below the legislation can go as much as seven years with a high quality which can lengthen to Rs 5 lakh. The Act additionally stipulates punishment for involving the neighborhood and lists the measures the police can take to guard folks from witch-hunting.

Karnataka (2020): The Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Act, 2017 got here into impact in January 2020 after it was notified by the BJP authorities— which initially opposed it when it was the Opposition get together. The legislation bans a number of practices associated to black magic and superstition, like forcing an individual to stroll on hearth at non secular festivals and the apply of piercing rods from one facet of the jaw to the opposite.

The legislation states {that a} court docket can direct the police to subject the identify of an individual convicted below the Act in native newspapers. “Inhuman, evil practices and black magic and advertisement, practice, propagation or promotion of such activities in violation of the Act” is punishable with as much as seven years of imprisonment and with a high quality starting from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000.

What about Kerala?

The Elanthoor human sacrifice case will not be the primary such case within the State. While knowledge affirm that a number of circumstances are reported yearly, police information present that majority of incidents happened within the countryside. Most not too long ago, a girl in Palakkad slit the throat of her six-year-old child with a kitchen knife as a ‘sacrifice’ to appease the Gods.

The first try to border an anti-superstition legislation got here round a decade in the past when back-to-back killings rocked the State. The then Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence), A. Hemachandran, ready a working draft of the Kerala Exploitation by Superstition (Prevention) Bill in 2014, which coated components concerned in invoking supernatural powers for “wrongful gratification” together with these of a financial or sexual nature. The draft sought to make offences below the Act cognisable and non-bailable. It exempted conventional ceremonies and rituals related to locations of worship or with completely different faiths.

The Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) additionally submitted a draft ‘Superstitions and Evil Practices (Prevention and Eradication) Bill’ in the identical yr. The following yr, MLA Ok. Sivadasan Nair moved a calling consideration movement towards evil and inhuman practices involving kids. Replying to him, the Kerala authorities knowledgeable the Assembly {that a} draft on the strains of the anti-superstition legislation in Maharashtra was being ready. Veteran Congress chief and former MLA P. T. Thomas additionally moved a personal invoice towards black magic in 2018. All draft legislations, nevertheless, did not see the sunshine of day. 

In 2019, the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, headed by former Supreme Court decide Ok. T. Thomas, submitted a contemporary draft for an anti-black magic legislation to the State authorities. The Kerala Prevention of Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices, Sorcery and Black Magic Bill, 2019 proposed strict punishment for any type of evil apply within the identify of black magic — a high quality of as much as Rs 50,000 and imprisonment of as much as seven years, moreover the punishments for offences below the Indian Penal Code. The Bill proposed spreading consciousness about evil practices and publishing names and particulars of convicts in newspapers.

Like the 2014 Bill, the 2019 laws additionally excluded innocent rituals carried out at house and non secular locations, festivals, prayers and processions and worship at any non secular or non secular place from its purview. But like its predecessors, the Bill was additionally in chilly storage till October 2022.

According to the newest experiences, within the aftermath of the Elanthoor killings, the Kerala authorities is more likely to take into account the Kerala Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices, Sorcery and Black Magic Bill, 2019. The authorities might both go for an ordinance or a laws on the ground of the Assembly to take the Bill ahead. Sources instructed The Hindu that senior authorities functionaries and the Kerala Law Reforms Commission will vet the draft for remaining suggestions.

The finalisation of the Schedule of the Bill might, nevertheless, pose a critical problem to the federal government, because the inclusion or exclusion of practices originating in might upset highly effective socio-religious teams and civil society organisations within the State. At current, the draft Bill contains 10 practices deemed essential to be curbed by the Law Commission.