Body of 11-month-old exhumed, death by black magic suspected

Kolkata: The body of an 11-month-old baby was exhumed for post-mortem after it was suspected that black magic led to the death of the child. The incident took place at Khanakul in Hooghly.

Police said that the body was exhumed on Friday morning in the presence of the Sub-Divisional Officer and it was sent for an autopsy in Arambagh Sub-divisional Hospital.

Preliminary investigation revealed that a woman from East Midnapore went to the accused Bikash Roy with her ill child. Bikash, a resident of Utna village in Hooghly, used to perform black magic and had allegedly insisted the woman not to take the child to any doctor or hospital. Instead, he practiced black magic on her after assuring the woman that her child will get well soon. The woman had taken her child to Bikash on Tuesday and for the next two days he kept the child under his custody. He also made the child eat some herbs and police came to know that the child died a few hours after on Thursday.

Before the police had reached the spot, the accused had buried the child's body in a garden situated behind his house. Local people ascertained that something went wrong when they found the child's mother sitting outside the accused's house and crying.

When enquired, the woman revealed the entire incident to the locals who informed the police. Cops from the local police station went to the spot. They first spoke to the victim's mother and then interrogated the accused.