Baripada, Nov. 1: Rairangpur police today arrested two persons for allegedly killing a 55-year-old widow because they suspected she was practising witchcraft.

The accused, Ram Tiria, 32, and Budduram Tiria, 24, are residents of Kukursalo village at West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand. The deceased, Jabati Tiria, was from the same village.

The police said the accused and the deceased were relatives and had come to Badampahad in Rairangpur to attend the last rites of one of their relatives.

The next day, the two lodged a complaint with the police that when they were returning to their village after attending the rituals through Jhatisiranga, Jabati got separated from them and they could not find her. Later, her body was found with injury marks.

The cops then interrogated the two and found out that they suspected she was a witch.

They also believed that the woman caused the deaths of one of their children. They had been waiting for an opportunity to kill her. After attending the ritual, they were returning to their village. On the way, they killed the woman by strangulating her and later disfigured her face by hitting it with a heavy stone.

They went to their native place in Singbhum and informed everybody that the woman had gone missing.

Sub-divisional police officer of Rairangpur Mohanpani Karua said: "Driven by superstition, the duo killed Jabati. The accused have confessed to their crime. They will be produced before the court after interrogation," he said.

Man robbed

Unidentified goons on Tuesday robbed a person in the daytime and fled from the spot without facing any resistance in Keonjhar district.

Sources said the robbers, who came on a Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle that did not have a registration number plate, took Rs 4 lakh from the victim Gokula Chandra Mahapatra at Jhumpura Market and fled.