Lucknow, Aug 3: In a shocking incident reflective of the prevailing superstitions in the society, a woman allegedly scalded and chopped one of the fingers and tried to bury her 24-day old deformed newborn baby in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district, about 125 kilometres from here.
The baby, who was branded as a 'satan' (devil) by her mother, was saved by the father, who managed to approach the cops in time to prevent the woman from burying the child alive. The woman has been arrested.
According to the police, the child suffered from physical deformity at the time of birth. The mother, under the influence of a 'tantrik' (exorcist), refused to keep him with her thinking that he was a 'satan'.
''She exerted pressure on me to bury the child alive saying that he could kill us all if he lived,'' the father said. The woman also threatened to divorce her husband if the latter did not bury the child alive, the police said.
He said that that his wife scalded the newborn with a red hot coin and also chopped one of his fingers. The infant had blisters on his body, the police said.
After all his attempts to persuade his wife not to harm the infant failed, the hubby approached the cops and sought their help. The police intervened just in the nick of time and the child was saved.
A case was registered by the police in this connection and the woman was arrested. Her brother Shadab Hasan, who also allegedly took part in torturing the kid, has also been booked, police said on Wednesday.
Earlier there have been instances, where the parents killed their babies born with deformity. In some cases, such babies, which suffered from congenital disorders, were also branded as aliens or even gods. A deformed female baby was branded as the goddess 'Kali' and worshipped by the people in Kanpur a few years back.
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