News Analysis India

Tag: Exorcism

  • Dalit woman raped in UP for months by ‘exorcist’

    By PTI

    GONDA (UP): Police here arrested a cleric on Friday for allegedly raping a Dalit woman for several months in the name of exorcism.

    Superintendent of Police Akash Tomar said that the woman, living in an area under Police Station Kotwali Nagar limits, had complained to the police that her neighbour, Mohammad Zainul Abedin, was sexually abusing her for about six months, all this while pretending to ‘exorcise’ her.

    According to the complaint, Zainul also molested the woman’s 14-year-old daughter by calling her to his house. When Zainul’s son intervened, he hit him too.

    On Thursday night, Zainul forcibly entered the woman’s house and started assaulting her. Hearing her shouts, neighbours reached there, thrashed him and handed him over to the police.

    Tomar said Zainul has been booked for rape and under sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

    GONDA (UP): Police here arrested a cleric on Friday for allegedly raping a Dalit woman for several months in the name of exorcism.

    Superintendent of Police Akash Tomar said that the woman, living in an area under Police Station Kotwali Nagar limits, had complained to the police that her neighbour, Mohammad Zainul Abedin, was sexually abusing her for about six months, all this while pretending to ‘exorcise’ her.

    According to the complaint, Zainul also molested the woman’s 14-year-old daughter by calling her to his house. When Zainul’s son intervened, he hit him too.

    On Thursday night, Zainul forcibly entered the woman’s house and started assaulting her. Hearing her shouts, neighbours reached there, thrashed him and handed him over to the police.

    Tomar said Zainul has been booked for rape and under sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

  • Pregnant Maharashtra woman subjected to rituals dies; husband booked

    By PTI
    PUNE: A man has been booked along with four others, including his parents, after his 23-year-old pregnant wife died as they refused to take her to a hospital and preferred to carry out exorcism rituals, police in Pune said on Monday.

    The incident took place in Shilim in Lonavala on February 10 and a case was registered under sections of IPC and the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013, an official said.

    “Dipali Bidkar was 8 months pregnant and started having labour pains on February 10. However, her husband Mahesh Bidkar, his parents, brother and brother’s wife, did not take her to hospital and instead performed some rituals at home,” A Lonavala rural police station official said.

    While Dipali’s kin insisted that she be taken to a hospital, her husband and his relatives claimed she was under a spell and needed to be exorcised by a godman, the official added.

    Dipali’s kin later rushed her to a hospital but she and her newborn died, he added.

    After they approached the Andhashradhha Nirmulan Samiti, a case was registered, he said.