Gang blinds woman accused of witchcraft with scissors in Chhattisgarh

Eleven people stormed into a house in Khaira village in Chhattisgarh's Raipur district and assaulted a woman whom they accused of witchcraft, blinding her and her husband by stabbing them in the eyes with scissors, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place on Friday. Police later arrested 10 suspects.

A family in Khaira village had been having money troubles and health problems, which they blamed on a 45-year-old woman, according to SS Baghel, a local police officer.

"The accused blamed the alleged witchcraft power of the lady for their problems and raided her house on Friday morning," Baghel told Reuters by phone. "First they beat her up and then a few of them held her hands and legs and then inserted scissors into both her eyes."

When her husband tried to intervene, the group turned on him and inserted scissors into his eyes as well, Baghel added. A doctor at a local hospital said the couple would likely never be able to see again.

The brutalities related to witchcraft, mainly against women, are not new for the interior illiterate pockets of Chhattisgarh, where woman accused of witchcraft are often killed or paraded them naked.

Chhattisgarh passed the Witchcraft (Prevention) Act in 2005 to crack down on offenders. But the law has hardly made an impact in tribal areas, where atrocities against women accused of witchcraft still flourish and the majority of cases go unreported.