In a bizarre incident, parents of a five-year-old girl allegedly beat her to death on Saturday while performing ‘black magic’ to drive away ‘evil forces’.
The police arrested the child’s father Siddharth Chimne (45), mother Ranjana (42) and aunt Priya Bansod (32). Chimne, who runs a local news channel on YouTube, had gone to a dargah in Takalghat area with his wife and two daughters – aged 5 and 16 – on Guru Purnima last month. The man had allegedly suspected behavioural changes in his younger daughter since then.
According to the police, he believed that she was under the influence of some evil forces and decided to perform ‘black magic’ to drive them away. The girl’s parents and aunt performed the ritual on Friday night and also shot its video, which the police later recovered from their phone. In the clip, the accused were seen asking some questions to the girl, who was crying. The child was unable to understand the queries and could not answer them.
During the ritual, the three accused allegedly slapped and thrashed the child severely, following which she fell unconscious and collapsed on the ground. The accused then took the child to a dargah in the morning hours of Saturday. They later shifted her to the Government Medical College and Hospital and ran away from there, said a police official.
A security guard at the hospital grew suspicious and captured a picture of their car on his mobile phone, the official said. Doctors at the hospital later declared the girl dead and alerted the police, he said. The accused were identified on the basis of the vehicle registration number captured in the photograph.
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