Girl “buried alive,” site turns shrine

Girl “buried alive,” site turns shrine

Mangalore Today News Network

Bharatpur, Sep 19, 2014:  The grave of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl whose parents claimed she was a “goddess” drew large crowds on Thursday amid conflicting versions about the manner of the child’s death and the suspicion that she had been buried alive.

By the time the police moved in to break up the gathering at the grave in Kumher village, some 25 km from here, hundreds of villagers were streaming to the site, setting off alarm in the district administration.

A tent had quickly come up, prayers were being said, and a television channel arrived at the spot to air the proceedings live, showing visitors offering fruits, flowers and money at the site. The police later exhumed the body and sent it for post-mortem. The initial post-mortem report indicated that the child had acute diarrhoea.

Superintendent of Police, Bharatpur, Rahul Prakash told The Hindu that investigations were continuing and an inquest would be held. The child, Khushboo, died in the early hours of Thursday. Soon, the parents spread the word that their daughter had attained “samadhi.” Shrimati, mother of a girl who was allegedly buried alive near here on Thursday considering her as a goddess, told a television channel and other media that reached the spot that her daughter spoke of herself as a “goddess.”

 

The child, she said, had expressed the wish to be buried in “samadhi” in the compound of their house. The mother claimed Khushboo to be an “incarnation,” and said she had dressed her up like one before she buried, but could not tell if the girl had been dead or alive at the time.

Vinod, the father, at first repeated the “incarnation” version, but later said the girl had an illness from birth, to treat which he had taken her to doctors in Gurgaon, Agra and Alwar and to “tantriks”.

Vinod and Shrimati belong to the ‘Nat’ or nomadic community. Khushboo was their only child. By Thursday evening, the entire place, including the grave site, was in darkness. 

 

Courtesy: Thehindu