http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Dalit_widows_forced_to_swallow_human_excreta/articleshow/2931328.cms
Dalit women forced to swallow excreta 7 Apr 2008, 0241 hrs IST,Law Kumar Mishra,TNN DHANBAD: Days after a widow was paraded naked in a village here for entering a temple, two Dalit widows have been forced to swallow human excreta by villagers who blamed them for being responsible for an outbreak of chicken pox. Police arrested four people on Sunday for violating the Jharkhand Anti-Witchcraft Act, 2001 and Prevention of Atrocities on SC/ST Act after they tortured Rashmi Devi (60) and Samri Devi (65) in Manaydih village, 15 km from Dhanbad. Samri Devi is a sweeper in a local branch of a nationalised bank. "It was because of superstition. The villagers, including the son of one of the victims, believed the elderly women were practising witchcraft," said Vinod Kumar, an officer at Barwaadda police station. The trouble started after the four-year-old son of Koleshwar Das, one of the villagers, died two days ago. The family of Das suspected it was because of the "witchcraft" of the two elderly women. The villagers caught the women on Saturday forced them to eat human excreta. They alleged that the women were a "curse on the village" and chicken pox had spread in the area because of them. Last Thursday, another widow from a backward community was paraded naked in Ranwatand village, 35 km from Dhanbad, for entering the village temple. The culprits said a widow had "no right to enter a temple".
