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NEW DELHI: As many as 183 women were killed in Jharkhand over the past four years in reported cases of lynching of women in the guise of witchcraft, the home ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Citing information provided by the Jharkhand police, minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to a question from an MP said 42 women were killed in the state till November this year after being branded as witches, as compared to 44 in 2016, 51 in 2015 and 46 in 2014.

“Cases have been registered in this regard in different districts of the State and investigation of such cases is given priority,” he said.

Jharkhand police, according to Ahir, had further informed that most of the offenders were arrested and property seized in the cases of absconding offenders. Also, in most of the cases, charge sheets have been submitted promptly against the offenders.

The Jharkhand police’s figures of women killed in the guise of witchcraft is higher than the figures cited in crime statistics maintained by NCRB. While Jharkhand police put the number of women murdered under this category in 2016 at 44, NCRB report on Crime in India puts the figure for Jharkhand at 27. The overall figure for India was 134 in 2016.

The incidents of women being killed in the guise of witchcraft are the highest in tribal-dominated societies, with Jharkhand reporting 27 murders, Odisha 24, Madhya Pradesh 19 and Chhattisgarh 17 killings.

