An agriculture labourer was stoned to death by an angry mob in the late hours of Sunday for being a 'sorcerer' in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district.
The incident which took place in Gogulapadu village in Gurazala mandal, saw a group of 20 people go to the victim's house and beat him up with sticks, before they dragged him out of his house, tied him to a pole and threw stones at him.
The Times of India reported that the mob did not spare 57-year-old Muthana Gurava Reddy's wife, Mangamma, either as they thrashed her and said that she too would meet the same fate.
Reddy bled to death while his wife fell unconscious.
The TOI report adds:
The villagers suspected that Reddy had caused the sudden death of two youth in the village in the last one month.Their suspicion was roused when they found Reddy, an agriculture labourer, offering prayers to various gods and goddess in the burial grounds during the night. They had, last fortnight, threatened him with dire consequences if he did not stop sorcery and told him to leave the village.
"With Gurava Reddy continuing to stay put in the village, some of the villagers wanted to teach him a lesson and took law into their hands," the police told the newspaper.