Indian 'witchcraft' couple burned alive
An elderly couple in southern India were burned to death on a pyre by a local mob who believed the two were witches, police said today.
Sayilu Pandla, 70, and his wife Pochamma, 65, were dragged out of their hut in the village of Upputimmayapalli, beaten and then set on fire by the crowd that included some of their relatives, said district superintendent of police RB Naik.
Upputimmayapalli is 90 miles north of Hyderabad, the capital of India’s Andhra Pradesh state.
Naik said witnesses reported that the mob comprising a few dozen people was led by a relative of the two, Rajaiah Pandla, who accused them of casting spells to make his daughter ill.
Despite their protestations of innocence, they were killed, he said.
Rajaiah and some others were arrested and charged with murder.
“This is an uncivilised act and it will be dealt with very sternly,” Naik said.
While Indian cities like Hyderabad are leading the country’s charge into the information age, rural areas of India remain deeply superstitious.
