Mahottari, June 21:

Forty-five-year-old Barun Shah of Laxminiya VDC-9 and his 40-year-old wife Ramkali Devi were severely beaten up and forced to swallow faeces on the charge of practising black magic and hexing a neighbour’s daughter-in-law.

However, according to those in the know, the motive for doing so was nothing but the desire to break the couple into yielding some land to that covetous neighbour.

The neighbour Yogendra Shah’s daughter-in-law had reportedly fallen ill for 15 days and a shaman was called in from India for her treatment. The shaman, after resorting to mumbo-jumbo, told the villagers that if they wanted the woman cured Barun and Ramkali should be tied up, beaten and fed faeces.

Some 200 villagers led by the shaman crammed the faeces down their throats at around 2:00 am on Tuesday at Laxminiya VDC, 80 km west of Jaleshwor, the district headquarters of Mahottari.

The aggrieved husband and wife reached Jaleshwor today for medical treatment and justice. They have been admitted to the district hospital. They alleged that Bhujan Shah, Suren Shah, Raj Kishore Shah, Dinesh Shah, Manoj Shah and Rakesh Shah — all from Laxminiya VDC-9 — treated them inhumanely.

Sources said that Barun and Ramkali had a running dispute over some land with their neighbour. Deputy superintendent of police at the Mahottari district police office Madan Kesari said Barun and his wife were treated in this manner to browbeat them into giving up the land. Those who ill-treated the couple could not be held as they have fled from their homes, DSP Kesari added.

Jana Morcha Mahottari district secretary Bidur Kumar Karki today said the incident was most shameful and inhumane and called for action against the guilty.