Woman dies after being buried in pit as cure from spirit

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

In yet another example of sheer backwardness of Mewat, a 30-year-old mother of three died on Tuesday while being treated by a local ‘witch doctor’ for allegedly being under the influence of spirits.The woman, identified as Prameena, was buried till neck in a five-feet-deep pit by another woman Sahida known in the area for treating “paranormal” patients.

Onlookers claim that she was screaming for help for almost two hours even as hundreds of people stood watching as she eventually died.Following which the panicked accused, Sahida, asked the family to take her back to their village saying spirit killed her. However when her husband resisted, a joint panchayat was called to settle the matter.Local police although aware of the matter had not filed an FIR till filing of the report.

Sources claimed that cops were waiting for panchayat to conclude to decide on further action.According to victim’s husband Sakir, a resident of Palwal’s Bhootpur Udawar village, his wife was behaving peculiarly since many days. He reportedly took her to many doctors but it was of no use.“The villagers told me that she was being haunted by a spirit and only Sahida of Shah Chaukha village could cure her. I took my wife to her and she promised successful treatment.“She buried her neck deep in a pit in her yard.

Prameena screamed for two hours saying she was feeling suffocated and I insisted on her being removed but Sahida and her husband scared me away saying it was spirits trying to lure me and disrupt the treatment.“It was when her eyes shut and she was quiet that they pulled her out. They knew she was dead but told me it was trance after escaping clutches of the spirit and asked us to go back to our village. I soon realised I had lost her and returned with her body along with my village panchayat,” Sakir said.Ironically, while the body was driven around between two villages, local police which was well aware of the incident was waiting for a formal complaint to file the case.The panchayat was still on till filing of the report and the post-mortem too had not been started.

THE TRIBUNE