Ranchi, Feb 11 The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday slammed the Gumla superintendent of police for not taking action against those who assaulted a woman, branding her a witch.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Chandramani Urain, who had moved the court to trace her missing daughter. She was six years old when she disappeared in 2019.
During the hearing, she submitted that she was also assaulted by her co-villagers who branded her as a witch in the same year, but the police did not take action.
The police, on the other hand, said that the woman was not willing to lodge a formal complaint about the assault.
Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai then criticised the district SP, as no action was taken against the villagers who had beaten her up.
There was, however, no link between the disappearance of her child and the assault.
The bench also directed the police to trace the whereabouts of the minor daughter of Urain and trace her Aadhaar card.
The court ordered the petitioner to make the UIDAI director a party in the case.
The bench directed the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority to send a team to Gumla to help Urain tide over difficulties faced in the village.
Urain had lodged a complaint in 2019 after her daughter went missing from the village.
However, since no significant action was taken by the police to recover her daughter, Urain filed a petition for habeas corpus before the high court on September 4, 2025, suspecting that her daughter is a victim of human trafficking.
The case will be heard again on February 12.
