BHOPAL: A man has been arrested for allegedly raping a 20-year-old woman on Saturday in Khama village under Sohagi police station area of Rewa district.
The woman, ill for a month, was allegedly raped by an exorcist whom her family had enlisted to drive out an evil spirit they believed was causing her illness.
The exorcist, identified as Samrendra Singh Bhurtiya, practices in Badi Umaria village, where the woman had been taken for faith healing over the past month.
On Saturday, the exorcist visited the woman’s home in Kama village and began performing rituals. He drew a large circle and instructed the family to remain inside it while he took the ailing woman to another room for treatment.
Subsequently, Bhurtiya took the young woman into the other room and allegedly raped her on the pretext of removing evil spirits from her body.
Bhurtiya fled from her house as the woman fell unconscious. On gaining consciousness, she informed her family about having been sexually assaulted by the exorcist, after which the matter was reported to the local police.
“Acting on this matter, the accused occultist has been booked for rape and arrested immediately. He is in judicial custody of the local court,” sub divisional officer police (SDOP-Teonthar) Udit Mishra said on Monday.
Earlier, on March 13, a six-month-old baby boy, Mayank Dhakad, who had been unwell for a few days in the Kolaras area of MP’s Shivpuri district, was taken by his mother to a tantric (occultist), Raghuveer Dhakad, for healing rituals.
The tantric brutally hung the infant upside down over a fire and branded him with hot objects. The extreme heat damaged the baby’s corneas, after which he was admitted to a government hospital in Gwalior. Despite doctors' efforts, he succumbed to his injuries five days later on March 18.
The Tantric, Raghuveer Dhakad, meanwhile, was arrested by local police in Shivpuri district on March 17.