KARIMNAGAR: Highlighting the backward and superstitious Indian society, five members of a family — father, mother and three children — were accused of practising witchcraft. Unable to bear the constant harassment and insults, they committed suicide by hanging themselves. Ganta Komuraiah, his wife Komuramma and their daughters Ellam-ma, 10, Komuramma, 8, and Anjamma, 6, of Kandugula village in Huzurabad mandal in Karimnagar district belonged to the Gangireddula community who perform the Ox dance during the Sankranti festival.
Komuramma's brother and his wife fell ill a few days ago and accused Komuramma and her family of performing witchcraft on them. The villagers too began boycotting the family socially. Komuraiah and Komuramma denied the allegation many times and even tried to prove their innocence by putting their hands in hot oil. The mental agony of having to live with the stigma of witchcraft proved too much and on Sunday night, they first hanged their daughters and then themselves in their house. The two older daughters had been brought back to the village from an orphanage-home called Balasadan where they were staying.
