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Woman dies in brutal exorcism ritual in Telangana’s Karimnagar, sorcerer arrested
The woman had been unwell since giving birth to a baby two months ago. Her in-laws then approached the sorcerer through her uncle.
The police in Telangana’s Karimnagar district on Tuesday arrested a self-styled sorcerer who allegedly beat up a 24-year old woman to “ward off evil spirits” four days ago leading to her death Monday night.
The victim, Kanukuntla Rajitha, mother of a two-month old baby girl, succumbed to injuries at a private hospital in Karimnagar town on Monday night.
“We have arrested the accused, Doggala Shyam and booked a case under Section 307 (attempt to murder) on him. He was handed over to the Jaypur police station in Mancherial district, where the incident happened,” Karimnagar commissioner of police V B Kamalasan Reddy told Hindustan Times.
The woman’s uncle Pulikota Ravinder, who engaged the sorcerer, was also arrested. “The accused were produced before the court and sent to 14-day judicial remand,” Reddy said.
A video of Rajitha being beaten indiscriminately by Shyam on the pretext of driving away evil spirits from her surfaced in the social media on Monday.
Inquiries by the police revealed that Rajitha, an orphan, who pursued her graduation while staying in a social welfare hostel in Karimnagar, had been working as a salesgirl in a supermarket in Hyderabad since 2018. She came in contact with Mallesh from Gaddapaka village of Mancherial district, also a salesman and married him last year.
Two months ago, Rajitha delivered a baby girl. Since then, she had not been keeping good health. As she failed to recover even after treatment in the government hospitals at Mancherial and Karimnagar, her in-laws approached sorcerer Shyam, a native of Gaddapaka, through Ravinder.
On the request of Ravinder, Shyam visited Mallesh’s house four days ago and thrashed Rajitha severely stating that she was being troubled by evil spirits. He even got the “treatment” recorded in a mobile.
Unable to bear the torture, Rajitha fell unconscious. Her husband and in-laws brought her to Karimnagar for treatment. They admitted her in a private hospital, where she succumbed on Monday night.
“The body was handed over to the family after post-mortem, which mentioned that she died of internal bleeding in the head,” the police said.
