Baripada, Oct. 28: A 56-year-old man and his wife branded as black magic practitioners were taken to Gaya by fellow villagers and made to perform rituals to “wash their sins”.

The couple got their heads tonsured and had to perform rites as ordered by a tantric, who, along with around 20 villagers of Bhanpur in Gadadeulia, had accompanied them on the trip. The couple had to sell their property to raise funds for the travel and the rituals.

But the ordeal of the couple did not end with the villagers insisting that they must now throw the deities that they worship in their house into a water body. Besides, they must sacrifice a lamb and invite the community to a feast as atonement of their sins. When they refused, they were allegedly ostracised by the villagers.

She alleged that the local police had earlier refused to intervene and had instead counselled the couple to make peace with the villagers. Following her complaint to the legal services officials, Baisinga police visited the village today.

Sushil Patra of the legal aid cell said the victim, Ballhi, in her compliant, said their trouble had begun when Piru Murmu, a resident of the village suspected them as black magic practitioners after his son had fallen sick. He called a meeting of the villagers in the last week of September. The villagers, she alleged, had consulted Buddhia Besra, a sorcerer living at Patpura village. They were told that unfortunate incidents were happening at the village, because the husband and wife were practising black magic.

In her statement, Ballhi Murmu alleged that the sorcerer told the villagers that the couple would have to be taken to Gaya to ward off evils. The villagers at the meeting also decided that the entire cost of the trip would have to be borne by the couple. Her husband, Anupa, was forced to sell his land for Rs 1.4 lakh and had spent nearly Rs 80,000 in performing the rituals. “Now, the villagers want us to perform some more rituals,” she said.

On September 20, the villagers, the sorcerer and the couple went in three vehicles to Gaya and performed the rituals the next day. They returned to the village on September 22.

“Now, they want us to perform even more rituals. I have sold half acre of land and we are left with just one acre. The villagers are not letting me leave the village till all rituals are completed,” Ballhi said.

Sub-divisional police officer Dhiren Chandra Nanda, who is supervising the investigation, said: “A police team, which had gone to the village, could not locate her husband as he is believed to have gone to his in-laws’ house. We are probing the case seriously and will take appropriate action against the accused.