Doctor slaps ‘possessed’ woman to revive her in Rajasthan; removed

Yash Goyal

Jaipur, June 29

In a bizarre incident, a doctor allegedly slapped a “possessed” woman patient to bring her to consciousness in Barmer district, following which he was removed and put under awaiting posting order (APO) status.

Dr Surendra Bahari posted at Barmer government hospital was on Thursday removed for his alleged occult practice with women patients whose video went viral on social media. 

The Directorate of Medical Health and Family Welfare has served the APO order to Dr Bahari and asked him to report to the headquarters in Jaipur.

This is done in view of the primary report of Dr Bahari’s way of treatment and the video, an official said. 

According to officials, Dr Bahari did not adopt any medical procedure to revive the woman who was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state on Wednesday.

The woman patient, whose family members claimed that she was “possessed of evil spirits”, was slapped by the doctor a couple of times after lighting an incense stick. Then the woman got unconscious. This happened with four women patients as per the video. 

When the doctor was asked why treated her like this, he said, “The woman patient’s hair were found cut and some one grabbed her neck...in that situation to bring her back to consciousness I slapped her.”

He also claims in the video that after seeing this kind of magical power he also got a headache.

There are rumours of occult practices that have created fear among villagers as hair of women is allegedly chopped off at night in Barmer and Jaisalmer district.

 “A three-member committee was set up to inquire the incident and the report was forwarded to the directorate of medical and health in Jaipur,” Hemraj, Superintendent of the district hospital, said.

In Jaipur, Health Minister Kalicharan Saraf ordered to remove the doctor and put him under APO status.

“The doctor has been put under APO with immediate effect on directions by the health minister. He will report to Jaipur headquarters,” Dr O P Thakan, Additional Director (Administration), medical and health department said.  — With PTI inputs