A 40-year-old woman was burned alive by villagers after being accused of casting black magic in Nepal on Friday.

Dengani Mahato, mother of two, was severely beaten and set on fire by a mob including her own family members after a shaman blamed her over death of a boy a year ago, BBC and AFP reported. Her 9-year-old daughter witnessed the tragic incident.

The attack occurred Friday in Bagauda in Chitwan district, about 80 kilometers southwest of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.

“(The attackers) accused her of having hands in the death of the boy, who had drowned in a river,” said Gopal Bhandari, a superintendent of police in Chitwan district.

He said the shaman and the nine locals suspected of taking part in the crime had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Nepalese government announced 1 million Nepalese rupees ($14,000) in compensation for her two children.

Hundreds of lower-caste (class) women are thought to suffer abuse at the hands of "witch hunters" every year in Nepal, where superstition and caste-based discrimination remain rife and where most communities still operate on strict patriarchal lines.

Such crimes are rarely brought to justice, say human rights activists. (News reports)