The death of a woman at a hospital in India has turned into something of a strange scandal after it was revealed that her attending physician enlisted a witch doctor for help.
The bizarre incident occurred at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in the Indian city of Pune over the weekend when Sandhya Sonawane passed away in the facility's intensive care unit.
Although ostensibly at the hospital for treatment of chest tumor, a video captured by Sonawane's brother shockingly showed that she received a rather unorthodox brand of medicine.
In the unsettling footage, which has gone viral in India, a mysterious individual unaffiliated with the hospital can be seen performing some kind of ritual over the ailing woman in the hours prior to her death.
Her outraged next of kin subsequently contacted a major rationalist organization in India which has made it their mission to squash superstitions in the country.
The group, in turn, took aim at the medical doctor responsible for enlisting his magical counterpart, demanding that Dr. Satish Chavan be arrested for breaking anti-superstition laws and have his license revoked.
For his part, Dr. Chavan had a rather ridiculous reason for the ritual, claiming that the man was a priest who happens to be his friend and, as bad luck would have it, popped in to visit him at work that day.
Assuming for a moment that his tale is true, this still does not explain why Dr. Chavan thought it would be a good idea for his friend to join him in the ICU and perform a spontaneous ritual over a critically ill patient.
Source: The Hindu