Woman brands infant with hot iron rod to treat bloating; detained

A 10-day-old girl was allegedly branded with a hot iron rod by a woman relative as a treatment for abdominal bloating in Maharashtra’s Amravati district, police said on Sunday.

The woman was detained after the matter came to light on Friday and a case was registered against her under Section 118 (1) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, they said.

The child was born on June 15 at a Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Dahendri village in Chikhaldara in Amravati district. About a week after the birth, the girl fell sick and the local PHC staff attended to her.

During this time, an aunt of the child’s mother who had come to visit them told the family that the girl had a problem of abdominal bloating and suggested to perform “damma”, a superstitious practice prevalent in the tribal Melghat region of the district, a police official said.

Subsequently, the woman’s aunt branded the child’s stomach with a hot iron rod, he said.

On Friday, the local PHC staff visited the child for a follow-up and noticed the iron branding marks on her stomach. They immediately took her for treatment to the district hospital in Achalpur, the official said.

The child was discharged after treatment on Saturday, and is stable now, according to the police. The accused woman was detained for questioning, the official added.