Alipurduar, July 15: A woman, who had been branded a witch by a local quack, was stabbed to death allegedly by her neighbours last night.

Sumitra Meher (55), who worked in the Atiabari Tea Estate of Alipurduar subdivision, had to bear the “sorceress” tag after her neighbour Ghutur Baraik’s four-year-old son had fallen ill and did not recover even after many months.

Initially, Ghutur had told the people in the locality that the haemoglobin count in the boy’s blood was less and that was why he was not recuperating. But after the quack told him that Sumitra was a witch and the evil spirit in her body was keeping the boy unwell, Ghutur, along with his brother Munna, started harassing the woman.

Sumitra, a mother of two daughters, had lost her husband three years ago and was staying in her house alone. While the elder daughter Lilabati lives in Subhashini Tea Estate after her marriage, Ludhi, the younger one, works in a private company in Delhi.

Although she became the target of Ghutur and his family, Sumitra chose not to tell her relatives about the trauma she faced. Her close friend Mangri Kheria said Sumitra thought seeking the intervention of the relatives would lead to a confrontation with the neighbours and she wanted to avoid such a situation.

Around 8.30pm yesterday, Munna and Ghutur went to the widow’s house and broke opened the door. After covering Sumitra’s face with a piece of cloth, the siblings stabbed her several times. Thinking that the woman had died, the duo dumped her in a drain behind her residence.

Hearing a sound from behind Sumitra’s house, Katick Naik, another neighbour, went there and found the woman, her face still covered with the cloth, bleeding in the drain. Although Sumitra tried to utter something, she couldn’t and breathed her last.

Later, neighbours and Sumitra’s relatives reached the spot and found that her house had been breached.

The deceased’s relative Ramesh Meher, who lodged an FIR with Kalchini police station this morning, said Sumitra had told only Mangri about the matter. S.R. Misra, the additional superintendent of police, Alipurduar, said, the case had already been cracked and the duo were yet to be traced.