RAMECHHAP, SEPTEMBER 26
A woman has lost her life in the course of exorcism in Ramechhap's Khadadevi Rural Municipality.
Fifty-year-old Biba Majhi of Sitkha, Khadadevi Rural Municipality, died when she was sprinkled with rice grains while the youths of the locality 'tried to purge her of the ancestors' spirits' yesterday. Her mother, 70-year-old Sunamaya Majhi, was seriously injured in the incident and is undergoing treatment at Manthali Hospital.
According to locals, more than 11 youths had hit the victim woman and her mother with rice grains all over their bodies and on their mouths. They had used more than seven bags of rice to perform the rite. "The girls and boys entered the women's home and, in the name of freeing them of the ancestors' spirits, wasted bag after bag of rice grains relentlessly hitting them all over the body and on their mouths," said DSP Raj Kumar Thin of the district police office. While the youths were performing the rites, other people were looking on from outside.
Police have arrested 23 persons for their alleged involvement in the incident. Full details of the incident are yet to be learnt.
"Some boys and girls broke into our home saying they would free my mother and grandmother of the spirits yesterday. After they hit her with rice grains, she passed away, but they continued hitting her with rice grains saying they would bring her senses back," said the deceased woman's son Prem Majhi. After the rice grains used as akshyata were finished, they had bought bags of rice from a nearby shop and used the contents to hit them. Police had found Biba's body buried in a heap of rice. Police attributed the incident to superstition.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 27, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
