Supreme Court upholds life sentence in 1998 Odisha witch-hunting murder case

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N V Anjaria upheld the life sentence of Balku Oram for the murder of Puni Naik in February 1998. The incident occurred in a village in the Sundargarh district of Odisha, where the victim was accused of practicing witchcraft following the death of a local girl. The accused and an accomplice forcibly removed the woman from her home and killed her in a brutal attack witnessed by the victim's daughter.

The court dismissed the appeal against the Orissa High Court judgment from September 2022, which had previously confirmed the conviction of both Oram and his co-accused, Udai Oram. In its ruling, the Supreme Court emphasized that the persistence of such regressive practices and witch-hunting poses a significant threat to democratic values. The bench asserted that societal progress depends on the triumph of reason over superstition and collective irrationality.