PUNE: A 50-year-old woman from Kohinde Khurd village in Khed taluka about 50km from Pune and her husband were beaten to death by two brothers on the suspicion that she was practising black magic which affected them. The victim, Lilabai Mukane and her husband Navasu, 55, were sleeping in their hut on a farm.To misguide the police, the suspects Jaisu Borkar and Baban Borkar placed about 15 sticks and liquor bottles at the spot. “While bludgeoning the couple, the wallet of one of them fell at the spot which led the police to the duo,” deputy SP (Pune rural) Ganpatrao Madgulkar said.Madgulkar said the duo had claimed there were about 15 people involved in the murder. “They told us their names and that all of them had consumed liquor near Mukane’s hut. We grew suspicious when the farm owner told us that liquor bottles had been there for the past few months,” Madgulkar said, adding, “we questioned the duo, who admitted to their involvement in the murder,” he added.Both were arrested and remanded in police custody for five days by the court.Madgulkar said Lilabai was known in the area for using ‘mantras to cure children from illnesses’. “The locals told us that many people used to visit Lilabai when their children fell ill,” Madgulkar said.A few days ago one of the suspects had brought his daughter to Lilabai. “His daughter’s condition worsened and he and his wife developed rashes. They thought Lilabai had performed some black magic on them and hatched a plot to eliminate her.”They barged into Mukane’s hut and started attacking her with sticks. “When her husband tried to save her, the duo bludgeoned him to death,” Madgulkar said.

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