Ten news stories reveal 21st century India still stuck in superstition

1. Woman beheaded for 'practising' witchcraft in Assam

A 60-year-old woman was beheaded on Monday (July 20, 2015) allegedly by a group of villagers who suspected that she had been practising witchcraft in Assam's Sonitpur district. Superintendent of Police of Bishwanath Chariali, Manabendra Dev Roy, said the woman, Moni Orang, was called out of her house in Vimajuli village and attacked. Allegedly instigated by a couple, who act as priests in the area, the villagers severely beat her up then severed her head with a sharp weapon.

2. Mumbai woman beheaded in gory tantrik ritual

A 50-year-old woman, Kalavati Gupta, was killed in a human sacrifice ritual by six people, including a tantrik, in Nalasopara, a suburb of Mumbai. All six men were arrested a day after the Maharashtra Assembly passed an anti-superstition bill. The woman, who was killed as a sacrifice, was identified when her 30-year-old paralysed son recognised her headless body in photographs. Kalavati regularly visited Sarvajeet Kahar, who worked as a technician in Air India's transport department and practised black magic at home. She was seeing Kahar for a cure for her son.

3. Woman stripped and paraded on donkey in Rajasthan village

A 45-year-old woman was stripped naked, face blackened and paraded on a donkey on the order of a panchayat at Thurwal village, around 8km from the temple town of Charbhuja in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district. The panchayat pronounced the "punishment" after she was accused of killing her nephew by his wife and other family members. 

4. Girls not to use mobile phones: Barmer khap

A khap panchayat in Barmer, issuing a diktat, said that girls of the village will not use mobile phones and social media and has also warned girls not to wear jeans and bridegrooms to wear dhoti when getting married. This diktat comes as the entire world has moved on and has been witnesses technological revolution for decades now. That this developmnent almost coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching his flagship Digital India project through which the entire country would get high speed internet, is telling. Beyond the reach of social media, the old conservative mindset remains strong.

5. Khap declares married couple siblings, asks them to separate

A khap panchayat near Narwana in Haryana's Jind district issued a diktat declaring a married couple siblings five months after they had an arranged marriage. The kangaroo court issued a diktat "annulling" Praven Kumar (25) and 30-year-old Poonam's marriage, saying their gotras fall under "bhaichara" category and as such they should be treated as brother and sister.

6. Two-day-old baby grabbed by neck, forced to ‘walk’ by witch doctor to ‘cure its high temperature’

Horrendous scenes unfolded when a two-day-old baby boy was forced to "walk" by a witch doctor in an effort to cure the infant's high temperature. The tot was grabbed by the neck held above a blanket and waddled across a blanket in front of dozens of villagers in Assam. The child's parents brought the infant to the woman in her 50s who told them to strip the baby and perform the bizarre ritual reduce its temperature.

7. Woman stripped on orders of tribal panchayat in MP for 'eloping with lover'

In the tribal heart of Madhya Pradesh, a tribal panchayat (village council) in Alirajpur district unleashed a spine-chilling punishment to a married woman and her alleged young lover. Just a few hours after the 25-year-old woman, a mother of two, returned with a relative and allegedly her lover, Kamlesh to their village Wadha in Alirajpur's Udaigarh(250 km from Indore, the duo were produced before a tribal panchayat by none other than the elected village sarpanch (head) Dhan Singh on December 31. Both the woman and Kamlesh were first beaten up publicly in the presence of villagers and then tonsured. Subsequently, the woman was stripped and forced Kamlesh to "wash her breasts" (breastfeed), Udaigarh police station in-charge Gopichand Patel told reporters.

8. ‘Witches’ chop off Indian father’s hands and burn him alive in front of his son

A coven of witches chopped off a man's arms and burned him alive when he asked them for help treating his sick 10-year-old son, as they feared that he was a rival wizard. Brijlal Chopra's wife and son told police they watched helplessly as he was stabbed repeatedly and hacked with axes before the witches set him on fire with kerosene-soaked rags. "They were laughing and dancing around his body to music while he screamed in agony. In the end there was just a pile of ashes left," said a police spokesman in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, the closest city to where the "ritual slaying" happened.

9. Black sheep Baba dupes over 700 bhakts

From humble beginnings as an ayurveda medicine practitioner to a messiah blessed with divine powers of multiplying money by Sikotar Mata, to a fugitive and now behind bars, facing charges of swindling anything between Rs 100 crore and a Rs 1,600 crore. Doctor fraud or Ashok Jadeja metamorphosed rather quickly. But this metamorphosis couldn't have happened if there weren't thousands of gullible men and women putting their faith and money in the hands of such self-proclaimed godmen promising quick cures and sureshot success.

10. Followers bathed Sant Rampal in milk, then used it to make kheer prasad

As police moved in to arrest Hisar's self-styled godman Sant Rampal, many of his injured supporters, admitted to the Maharaja Agrasen Medical College (MAMC) in Agroha some 20 kms away from the ashram, provided graphic and bizarre accounts of the Barwala cult. Followers said Rampal was bathed in milk which was later used to make kheer for prasad. This ritual, they claimed, was key to the “miracles” he performed.