HYDERABAD: A 17-year-old girl died of suffocation during “treatment” of some ailment by a man claiming to be a sorcerer in Tando Mohammad Khan on Friday night.

Devika, daughter of Lalu Thakur, was taken to the ‘sorcerer’, Rashu Ramani, in Munawwar Colony for a fresh session of ‘treatment’ that had been continuing for 15 days.

A sorcerer is known in the Hindu community as ‘Bhopa’. Ramani kept treating the girl in a closed room through his own practice of reading different citations. However, the girl’s condition aggravated instead of improving and finally she died.

Ramani fled the area to escape any action against him.

The body was brought to her house but her parents refused to have a post-mortem examination performed.

Devika’s parents told police that Ramani had advised them not to take her to any doctor. During the treatment, they once did try to take her to a doctor but Ramani restrained them, they said.

Police were trying to trace out and arrest Ramani but a case of the incident was not registered till Saturday evening.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2021