A 26-year-old woman died allegedly due to injuries inflicted by an exorcist engaged by her father to free her from possession of 'evil spirits' in a village near here.
The post-mortem conducted on the woman, who died on Monday, found that her backbone had been broken and she suffered internal bleeding after the exorcist allegedly kicked her to rid her of 'evil spirits', police said.
Sensing danger, the exorcist, identified as Sirajuddin, fled from the place by night assuring the victim's parents that she had only swooned under the spell of the proceedings and would be cured of the problem when she woke up.
But by the next morning, she was found dead and the body was about to be taken for burial when some neighbours informed the police of possible foul play.
As local people and police insisted, the body was then taken to a government hospital for post-mortem, which revealed it was prima facie a case of unnatural death.
Police at Karunagapally has registered a case for unnatural death and taken father of the woman and another persons, said to be aide of the exorcist, into custody.
On interrogation, the parents of the woman admitted to having engaged the man to cure her of 'mental disturbances', which the exorcist told them was the result of being possessed by evil spirits.
