RAIPUR: A family beat a middle-aged woman to death after branding her as 'tonhi' and alleging that she was involved in witchcraft practices at village Tripuri of Balrampur district on Sunday night.

Balrampur police have arrested a woman, her son and two others of the same family on Monday. The accused, however, have shown no remorse in the killing after being arrested.

Deceased Itwari Bai was sleeping at her home when the accused pulled her hair and dragged her to the neighbour's place, police said. Neighbour Pankaj Kumar stated that his sister-in-law suddenly fell unconscious late night on Sunday and when he tried to bring her back to consciousness with the help of some ayurvedic medicine, she was whispering Itwari's name.

In his statement to police, Pankaj alleged that Itwari had cast spells of witchraft due to which his sister-in-law fainted.

Police said that when Pankaj heard Itwari's name clearly, he was enraged and came after Itwari. Pankaj and his mother started beating her, demanding that she cure the woman.

"As he slapped the half asleep and injured Itwari Bai, Pankaj felt that his sister-in-law's condition started improving which resulted in more beating. Itwari was so badly beaten that she died on the spot," police in charge DK Kurre said.

Police said that more arrests were possible after autopsy reports as there may be more people involved in her killing. Dr Dinesh Mishra, chairperson, Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, who works for eradication of superstition and black magic said that Chhattisgarh witnesses hundreds of incidents of assaults on women, who are marched naked and killed every year after being branded as 'tonhi'.

"Although after much efforts, witchcraft prevention Act was introduced in state in 2005, awareness is still a far cry among people in remote areas like Balrampur. Usually women, who live alone or are widows and do not have kids are targeted. It's the job of police as well to act against the issue and make people aware," Dr Mishra said.

"State witnesses one case every day while many cases go unreported. Awareness about the Act needs to be made at local level," he added. In a recent incident of assault on a 65-year-old woman in Korba, who was tonsured under suspicion of practicing witchcraft, National Human Rights Commission had issued notice to Chhattisgarh and called for a report in two weeks.

