4-year-old girl fighting for life after father performed weird rituals

Nellore: In a bizarre incident, a father forced his four-year-old daughter to gulp kumkum and turmeric as part of a weird ritual to please gods even as the hapless child cried aloud in suffocation and then fainted.

The incident was reported from Perareddypalle village in Atmakur municipal limits on Wednesday. The girl's condition was stated to be critical.

According to police, Punarvika was among twins born to Kandra Venugopal and Yamini couple. Her sister was Poorvika. Yamini left for her parents’ home in Kupparapadu of AS Peta mandal along with the twins a few days back to take care of the standing crop on a piece of land given to her by her parents.

Police said Venugopal went to Yamini’s family home and brought back the children on Tuesday night.

He started performing strange rituals on Wednesday morning by sprinkling kumkum and turmeric all over the house.

Venugopal allegedly put some kumkum and turmeric in the mouth of Punarvika and forced her to gulp it. The girl cried aloud when he throttled the backside of her neck. The girl then became unconscious.

His mother ran into the room and raised an alarm. Neighbours rushed in and shifted Punvarvika to a private hospital in Atmakur. Alerted from the hospital, the police came and took Venugopal into custody.

Doctors later advised the relatives to take the girl to Apollo Hospital in Nellore. Reaching there, doctors referred her to their hospital in Chennai as the girl was in a critical condition.

Locals said Venugopal has been performing weird rituals at home for the last three days. The Atmakur police have started a detailed investigation.