A 35-year-old man was killed and his private parts were mutilated by a group of villagers in Odisha’s Gajapati district on suspicion of practising witchcraft, police said on Sunday.
According to police, the villagers strangled the man and cut off his genitals before dumping the body in the nearby Harabhangi Dam. The body was recovered from the reservoir on Sunday morning and sent for post-mortem examination.
The villagers are believed to have suspected him of being responsible for the death of a woman in the village around two weeks ago, reportedly due to black magic.
The incident occurred on Saturday night in Malasapadar village, which falls under the jurisdiction of Mohana police station.
Suresh Chandra Tripathy, Sub-Divisional Police Officer of G Udayagiri, said that 14 villagers have been detained for questioning in connection with the incident.
Police said the man had earlier left the village with his family and gone to his father-in-law’s house in Ganjam district after facing threats from locals. He had asked his sister-in-law to look after his livestock.
The victim had returned to the village on Saturday to take his cattle and goats when he was abducted and killed.
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With inputs from PTI