Prayagraj cops keep vigil on sorcery at Magh Mela-2024
During Magh mela in 2023, a sorcerer was spotted at Sangam ghat beating a woman with sticks on the pretext of relieving her from the possession of evil spirits.
Prayagraj
Taking a lesson from incidents in past years, police at the ongoing annual religious fair of Magh Mela-2024 are keeping an eye on attempts to perform sorcery and other such practices in the Mela area. In some past incidents, sorcerers were seen indulging in such acts under the guise of curing people of their ‘possessions’ by beating them with sticks on the banks of Sangam.
It is worth mentioning that during Magh mela in 2023, a sorcerer was spotted at Sangam ghat beating a woman with sticks on the pretext of relieving her from the possession of evil spirits. The sorcerer and the persons accompanying him fled when some local priests objected. Later, it came to the fore that the sorcerer and the woman and her kin had arrived from Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.
A similar incident also took place during Kumbh-2013 when a photograph of a sorcerer clutching the hair of a woman in Sangam waters had gone viral.
In May 2015, a video of sorcery with a woman at a ghat in Sangam area surfaced.
Besides, there have been a number of such incidents taking place during Magh mela and even on usual days at Sangam, Jhunsi, and Arail ghats. In 2019, Daraganj police had arrested some persons who had killed a pig as a sacrifice while performing sorcery close to the Sangam area.
A priest at Sangam said such practices are forbidden at the holy Sangam. An eye is being kept on such forbidden practices, and the police are informed if any such acts take place in the Sangam area. Another local at Sangam said most individuals who perform sorcery or seek their help curing ‘possession’ by evil spirits hail from backward areas of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
A senior police official at Magh Mela, Rajeev Narayan Mishra, said no such practice in the Mela area or Sangam had yet come to notice.