Ranchi, February 11 The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday criticized the Gumla Superintendent of Police for failing to take action against those who assaulted a woman, branding her as a witch.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Chandramani Urain, who had approached the court to locate her missing daughter. She was six years old when she disappeared in 2019.
During the hearing, she stated that she was also assaulted by her fellow villagers who had branded her as a witch in the same year, but the police did not take any action.
The police, on the other hand, said that the woman was unwilling to file a formal complaint about the assault.
Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai then criticized the district SP, as no action was taken against the villagers who had assaulted her.
However, there was no connection between the disappearance of her child and the assault.
The bench also directed the police to locate the whereabouts of Urain's minor daughter and obtain her Aadhaar card.
The court ordered the petitioner to include the UIDAI director in the case.
The bench directed the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority to send a team to Gumla to assist Urain in overcoming the difficulties she faced in the village.
Urain had filed a complaint in 2019 after her daughter went missing from the village.
However, since the police did not take significant action to recover her daughter, Urain filed a petition for habeas corpus before the high court on September 4, 2025, suspecting that her daughter was a victim of human trafficking.
The case will be heard again on February 12.
