Eight people have been arrested in India's state of Jharkhand for fatally beating three women suspected of witchcraft, police said on Tuesday.
Talking to the media, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kaushal Kishore said that 13 people, including the husband and son of one of the three women, are under suspicion of being connected with the killings.
A search for five other suspects is continuing.
According to the police, a group of locals in the village of Ranadih in the state's Garhwa district beat the three women with sticks. The perpetrators suspected them of practicing witchcraft, which some people said caused some people to suffer snake bites.
Later, the villagers allegedly dumped the bodies of the suspected women in the hills near the village.
A police inquiry was launched after the nephew of one of the victims filed a complaint. The police recovered one of the bodies on Sunday and another on Monday.
Incidents of killings on suspicion of witchcraft have been reported in several Indian states.
Last month, 19 women beat two other women to death for allegedly practicing witchcraft in the village of Tukutoli in the Gumla district of Jharkhand.