Balangir: Superstition continues to raise its ugly head time and again in Odisha. This time, the incident took place at Balangir District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) on Wednesday.
According to the sources, family members of a minor boy, who had succumbed to a snake bite, approached a sorcerer and asked him to revive him using supernatural powers at Digasara village under Sindhekela police limits.
The sorcerer came and tried to revive the boy at the postmortem centre of the hospital.
The 15-year-old boy was bitten by a snake at Digasara village and brought to the hospital on Tuesday night. He died in the hospital on Wednesday, following which, his family members sought the help of the sorcerer.
On September 24, a similar incident took place from Mathura village under Polasara block in Ganjam district. A minor girl, who was ill, was taken to the Polasara Hospital. But the doctor there declared her dead. Her family members then asked a sorcerer to perform black magic to revive the girl.
They took her body near a temple in the village and black magic was performed there till late in the night.
Some of the villagers demanded that the district administration should create awareness among the people against the practice of black magic.
A similar incident was reported from Balasore district in the first week of August. According to the sources, Siddheswar Jena of Mahisamunda village was bitten by a snake and was declared ‘brought dead’ at the hospital in Jaleswar. His relatives called the sorcerer in Baripada and pleaded with him to resurrect Jena.
They also performed rituals with the branch of Neem tree on the hospital bed. Simultaneously, they held the phone near Jena’s ears as the sorcerer recited mantras to bring him back to life.
In another incident of practicing black magic in Odisha, family members of a victim of snake bite reportedly called a sorcerer to Kamakhyanagar Hospital in Dhenkanal district to treat him, in the first week of September.
According to the sources, Sanjay Das of Baisinga in the district was admitted to the hospital after being bitten by a venomous snake. Even as the doctors were treating him at the hospital, his family members called a sorcerer from the nearby village. The sorcerer chanted mantras and conducted other rituals inside the hospital premises to cure him.
By then, the doctors had administered an injection and given him medicines following which his condition had stabled. Blinded by superstition, his family members, however, gave all credit to the sorcerer.
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