# Supreme Court upholds life term of man who killed woman for witchcraft 2026-08-13T17:01:51+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the life sentence of Balku Oram for murdering a woman in Odisha in 1998 after accusing her of practising witchcraft. A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and NV Anjaria said the direct evidence was compelling and that the trial court and Orissa High Court had correctly convicted him. The court rejected arguments that the sole eyewitness, the victim’s daughter, was unreliable, and refused to downgrade the offence from murder to culpable homicide. It criticised the continued prevalence of witch-hunting, calling it a malady where prejudice and superstition override constitutional morality. ## Coverage - barandbench.com - hindustantimes.com Tags: life imprisonment, murder, Odisha, superstition, Supreme Court, witch-hunting Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-upholds-life-term-for-witch-hunt-murder/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-upholds-life-term-for-witch-hunt-murder/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.