Neighbours killed a 30-year-old woman after branding her a witch on Monday at the Maoist-prone Khesnaro village in Giridih.

The incident occurred at 1.30 pm.

The superintendent of police (SP), Amit Renu, sent a team headed by SDPO Khori-Mahua Naveen Singh to assess the spot.

The police team recovered the body of Geeta Devi lying in front of her house.

The SDPO said the incident occurred when Devi came home from the bank. The accused, a group of mostly her neighbours, punched her and attacked her with sticks and traditional weapons. She was hit by an axe on her head following which she collapsed and died. And when her brother and mother-in-law came to save her, the accused bashed them up as well. The two are injured.

Police found that the dispute between the deceased with her neighbours was continuing for the past few years.

Police are recording statements of the deceased family members and other eye-witnesses.

The husband of the deceased, Manoj Yadav, alleged that a neighbour sent his wife to jail in a false case about a year and -a-half ago.

They had a dispute with their neighbours for a long time.

The police have sent the body for post-mortem.

Preliminary investigation revealed that on the day of Raksha Bandhan, a son of one of the accused had died due to some disease.

For this, they blamed Geeta.

“The deceased was said to have been practicing witchcraft in the village. The accused blamed the deceased for killing her son, and so, they attacked her along with other people and killed her, branding her a witch,” said SDPO.

The matter is still being investigated.