Priest accused of murder
A person was killed due to superstition in Singhpur village of Dhariwal in Gurdaspur, Punjab. Here a pastor and his companions beat Samuel Messiah, a father of three, badly, killing him on the spot to ward off the devil. Being a poor family, the family did not file a police complaint. 2 days later, at the request of the relatives, a complaint was lodged with the police about the incident. The police, presided over by the duty magistrate, reached the spot, dug up the grave and took out the body for post-mortem. District Magistrate and police officials said that a case has been registered against 9 people including the priest in this matter and raids are being conducted to arrest them.
Narrating the incident, the mother of the deceased, Samuel Masih, Rakhal and wife Sunita said that her husband had some problem. The deceased had occasional seizures, due to which she invited a priest to her house to pray for her and the priest came to her house with some friends and started praying for her husband. The priest said that a devil had entered him and started beating him badly to drive away the devil. They threw the young man down and started kicking and punching him; After some time he died.
The body was exhumed from the cemetery two days later.
Being from a poor family, he buried his son’s body in the graveyard. After 2 days, when relatives told him that some action should be taken against the priest, he filed a police complaint. After reaching the graveyard, the police exhumed the man’s body from the grave and sent it for post-mortem. The family members said strict action should be taken against the priest and his associates, who killed their son after luring him into superstition.
Regarding the incident, Duty Magistrate Indrajit Kaur and DSP Kulwant Singh said that they had received information that a man was beaten up by a priest and his associates to evict Samuel Masih due to superstition in Sinhapur village. And the family members buried his dead body but now after receiving the complaint, the dead body of the person has been taken out from the graveyard again and the matter will be investigated after the postmortem. He said that a case has been registered against 9 people including the priest.
Report-Avtar Singh Gurdaspur
