New Delhi: The body of a two-and-a-half-month-old girl was exhumed in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district following her death after she was allegedly branded with a hot iron rod more than 50 times by an exorcist.
District Collector Vandana Vaidya said the baby’s body was exhumed on Friday and a post-mortem will be conducted on Saturday, news agency PTI reported.
The Initial probe revealed that she died due to pneumonia but the real reasons behind the death could be known after the post-mortem report, the District Collector said.
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The child’s mother, a resident of Kathotia under Sinhpur police station limits in the tribal-dominated district, said that her family first took her ailing daughter to a quack but her condition didn’t improve.
The family then approached a woman faith healer who poked the child’s body with a hot iron rod 51 times in a bid to treat her, the mother said, as per PTI.
As per a report by NDTV, the practice of poking with a hot iron rod to "treat" pneumonia is common in several tribal-dominated areas of Madhya Pradesh.
"When the women and child development officials reached the hospital, they found that the shocking case of blind faith took place 15 days ago and the child was not treated for pneumonia which deteriorated her condition", Shahdol Collector Vandana Vaidh said, as quoted by NDTV.
"A local Anganwadi worker counselled her mother and requested her not to poke the child with a hot rod," she added.
The baby’s condition deteriorated and she was taken to the district hospital, which referred her to Shahdol Medical College. The baby died during treatment on Wednesday, the mother revealed.
The family members then buried the child’s body. After learning about the incident from the local media, the government decided to exhume the body.