The tribal witch doctor or ‘desari’, who had allegedly branded a four-week-old child with hot nail in the name of treatment, was arrested in Nabarangpur district of Odisha on Sunday.
The ‘desari’, identified as Purushottam Ghasi, was arrested from Kumujhar village by Nabarangpur town police. The police arrested him following an FIR lodged by Nabarangpur Child Development Project Officer regarding this incident.
Ghasi is the second ‘desari’ arrested this year on charges of inhuman torture of new-born children in the name of treatment.
On December 24, an injured 28-day-old male child was admitted in Nabarangpur district hospital. The child’s abdomen had been branded several times by a hot iron nail-head. Although the mother of the child, Rukmini Kirsani of Butipadar village, is an anganwadi worker, she had approached the witch doctor when her new-born child developed stomach ailments and did not take mother’s milk.