HYDERABAD: The Sanghar police have arrested four suspects, including two sorcerers, in their investigation into the mysterious death of a 45-year-old woman, Daya Bheel, whose decapitated body was found dumped in mustard fields of Sinjhoro on Dec 27, 2022. They obtained five-day remand of one of the suspects from Nawabshah’s Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday.

The woman was murdered in Deputy Goth (village) and her body was decapitated by the arrested suspects, according to the police.

Although the police had been suspecting involvement of some sorcerer in the crime from day one, they have learnt that her brother, Dayara Bheel, was also part of the conspiracy to kill her. The murder case was lodged by her son, Soomar Bheel, under relevant sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Led by SSP Bashir Brohi, the investigating team had obtained a number of samples for DNA examination and the results were awaited.

Body decapitated for sorcery, woman’s brother involved in crime, suspects claim

Shaheed Benazirabad DIG Yunus Chandio, speaking to Dawn over phone confirmed arrest of two sorcerers and brother of the deceased woman in connection with murder. He said that the sorcerers were arrested on Saturday while the prime suspect, Ropo Bheel, who had confessed to have committed the murder, was arrested a day earlier. His five-day police remand was obtained on Saturday, he added.

The arrested suspects are Ropo, son of Buddho Bheel, Lonio, son of Harchand, Sajan, son of Shankar Bheel, and Dayara alias Dahraj alias Buddho.

The DIG said that Ropo had killed her out of personal grudge and her brother was arrested for his involvement in conspiracy to murder. He said that the suspect peeled off skin of the woman’s different organs to use it in sorcery. “They [the sorcerers] confessed that they dissolve different organs of a dead and then covert them into powder form for use in sorcery,” DIG Chandio claimed quoting confessional statements of the suspects.

He said that the weapon of offence included an axe, a knife and a blade. The suspects removed the woman’s hair from her head after killing her with the axe. “They removed her skin from different parts of her body,” he said. The suspects led the police to the places where they had kept the weapons of offence and other articles, he added.

He said it was a blind murder case but police finally caught hold of Ropo, who had moved from his neighbourhood to some other place after committing the crime.

The DIG quoted Ropo as confessing that he had personal grudge against the woman and that he, along with Sajan and Lonio, killed her upon finding her alone in the field.

The police officer said that the woman’s brother, Dayara, had provided them some logistics.

Meanwhile, police have sent some other samples. like clothes of the woman, for forensic examination.

Qurban Ali Khushik in Dadu adds: DIG Chandio in a statement said that more than 100 people were interrogated and sniffer dogs and modern technology were used to reach the suspects in this blind murder case.

He said that 42 samples for DNA were collected and the articles collected from the crime scene were sent to a lab for forensic tests.

He said Ropo told the investigators that Sajan was accompanying him when Lonio stabbed the woman repeatedly with a knife. The prime suspect said that Dayara helped them in the murder by providing tarpaulin and other articles, besides information about her movement.

Published in Dawn, january 8th, 2023