Gandhinagar: The Gujarat assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill seeking to curb the menace of black magic and other superstitious and inhuman practices such as human sacrifice.
Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi tabled the `The Gujarat Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil, and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill, 2024′ on the first day of the monsoon session.
The main Opposition Congress supported the bill which will now be forwarded to the Governor for his assent.
Earlier this month, the BJP government in the state had told the Gujarat High Court that it would bring a bill against black magic practices and ‘aghori’ activities. The assurance came in response to a public interest litigation demanding action against godmen and charlatans.
While tabling the bill, Sanghavi cited some recent incidents of human sacrifice, children being handed over to so-called exorcists for performing inhuman rituals, and killing of a woman labelled as a witch.
An alarming number of incidents of exploitation of common people at the hands of conmen professing to practise black magic have also come to light, he said.
A special law was needed to deal with such heinous crimes and eradicate these evil practices from society, said the minister.
“Thus, it has become necessary for the government to take appropriate and stringent measures to effectively prevent and eradicate the evil effects and spread of these harmful and inhuman practices to save common people from black magicians and conmen,” Sanghavi said.
As per the Bill, no person shall perform or even promote human sacrifice and other inhuman, evil and `aghori’ practices and black magic.
A person found guilty of such offences will have to face imprisonment of between six months to seven years with fine ranging from Rs 5,000 to 50,000.
All the offences under the Act will be cognizable and non-bailable, to be tried by a Judicial Magistrate First Class.
The state government will also appoint a “vigilance officer” for one or more police stations. The officer will be of the rank of police inspector or higher.
“It shall be the duty of a vigilance officer to detect and prevent the contravention…of the provisions of this Act…and report such cases to the nearest police station within his jurisdiction,” the Bill said.
Activities banned under the proposed Act include torturing a person on the pretext of expelling ghost, displaying so-called miracles to defraud or terrorise people, `aghori’ practices for receiving blessings of supernatural powers, doing black magic in search of precious things, trying to perform a human sacrifice and creating panic by `invoking ghost’.
Claiming to have supernatural powers and preventing a person from seeking medical treatment and instead giving him ‘dhaga-dora’ and ‘tantra-mantra’ treatment is also prohibited.
