Five women have been killed in a village in Jharkhand, 45 kilometres from capital Ranchi, reportedly on allegations of witchcraft. The village falls under Ranchi's Mandar block. The villagers used lathis and sharp edged weapons to kill the women at around midnight.

They suspected the women being involved in witchcraft, police said. The bodies were recovered on Saturday.The police  have not made any arrest yet and are investigating.

Jharkhand has had an anti-witchcraft law since 2001, but not much has been done on the ground to make the law effective or in creating social awareness. Because of such apathy, more than 400 people were killed and 2854 of such cases registered in 2011-14 period, as per state statistics. According to National Crime Bureau Records 2097 people have been killed across the country on allegations of witchcraft between 2000 and 2012 and 363 of those cases have been from Jharkhand.