NEW DELHI: The NHRC said on Wednesday that it has issued notices to the Bihar government and the state’s police chief over reports that five members of a Scheduled Tribe (ST) family were allegedly hacked to death and their bodies burnt on the suspicion of “practising witchcraft” in Purnia district earlier this month.The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has also directed the state government to take steps to ensure the safety of a 16-year-old boy, the sole surviving member of the family and an eyewitness to the alleged incident, and provide counselling to him.The NHRC has taken “suo motu cognisance of a media report that five members of a family, belonging to a Scheduled Tribe, including three women, were allegedly hacked to death and their bodies were burnt on suspicion of practising witchcraft” in Bihar’s Purnia district on the night of July 6, the rights panel said in a statement.The commission observed that the contents of the news reports, if true, raise serious issues of violation of human rights.Therefore, it said it has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Bihar, seeking a detailed report in two weeks, including the present status of the investigation of the case and arrest of the perpetrators.
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