In a horrific incident a mob brutally assaulted a man causing his death and then dancing around the body chanting religious hymns to appease their goddess.

The ghastly incident took place at an adivasi village in southern Assam’s Cachar district on Thursday. The mob was driven by a superstitious belief that the man possessed ‘evil spirits’ and that his presence in the village was ‘dangerous’.

On Wednesday night, Sukumar Mura, a local, dreamt that Jawaharlal Mura, 60, of the village possessed evil spirits and that his presence in the village would lead to the sufferings of the people. When he told others about his dream on Thursday, they got infuriated. The villagers, who are mostly illiterate, dragged Jawaharlal out of his house, tied him to a tree near a temple and beat him mercilessly. Jawaharlal died soon after.

The villagers then buried the body near the temple and went on dancing and chanting religious hymns. They continued doing so till Friday morning when the police went there to retrieve the body.

“A police team had gone to the village on Thursday night but it couldn’t retrieve the body as the situation there was very tense. The body was retrieved this (Friday) morning but not before the policemen lathicharged,” Cachar superintendent of police Diganta Bora told dna.

“The manner in which Jawaharlal was killed and the behaviour of the locals is yet to be ascertained. We have arrested 11 persons including three women,” Bora said adding it was a case of with-hunt in which the entire village was involved.

Witch-hunting, a social malaise, is very common in Assam, especially in tribal areas and Adivasi-dominated tea belt. Official records suggest that over 80 people were killed in suspected cases of witchcraft in the last five years.