Guwahati: President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015, that makes "witch-hunting" a cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offence and is said to be strictest in the country against such a crime.
Confirming the development, Assam home commissioner L.S. Changsan told The Telegraph that the President gave his assent on June 13, following several queries regarding the act provisions. A gazette notification on the act is likely to be published soon.
President's assent is required when an act passed by a state Assembly contravenes central law. In this case, the act contravenes sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deal with such crimes.
The act, passed by Assam Assembly in 2015, with provisions of jail term between seven years and life imprisonment and fine for intimidating a person by calling a witch or any act leading or compelling the person to commit suicide was forwarded to the President in December 2015. )
Prohibiting witch-hunting, the act says no person shall identify, call, stigmatise, defame, accuse any other person as witch by words, signs, indications, conduct, action or any other manner or instigate, aid or abet such an act or commit witch-hunting.
The act has provisions to impose fines on a community found involved in witch-hunt attacks. It also makes it mandatory for panchayat members, village development councils or gaonburhas (village chiefs) to inform the nearest police station if they come across a witch-hunting incident, failing which they will face departmental action or fine up to Rs 10,000. The provision, many believe, will help check lynching.
The act says the government will designate a court of additional sessions judge as a special court for trial of such cases within a year of filing of police report. The legislation was prepared after lawyer Rajeeb Kalita had filed a PIL in Gauhati High Court in 2013, seeking an anti-witchhunt law since over 130 people have died in attacks in at least 17 districts since 2002. The PIL said when maladies like illness, death or financial loss occur in a family, superstition leads many to believe that evil spells cast on them by others is behind the problems. Those accused of "practising witchcraft" are often hunted down and ostracised by the community and the village.
The state government told the House in April that 80 women had died since 2006 in "witch-hunt" attacks.
States like Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra have anti-witchhunt laws but the bill by Assam is said to be the strictest.
