Parents cremate son after trying to revive him for four days

SAHU’S ONLY SON, SAINANDA, DIED

WHILE UNDERGOING TREATMENT AT THE SCB MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL IN CUTTACK

The mortal remainsofatwo-and-a-half-yearold boy were finally cremated in Odisha’s Ganjam district on Friday, four days after his death as his parents resorted to superstition to revive the dead child.

Sachidanand Sahu and his family had been performing puja since the night of September 4, keeping the body inside the hollow groove of a mango tree near their village Sundarpur, hoping the boy would come back to life.

Sahu’s only son, Sainanda, died while undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. His family was set to cremate him when one hand of the baby appeared to stir.

“Some people at the crematorium suggested us to invoke deity Haraparbati near a mango tree in the neighbouring Nauli village,” said Bhagirathi Sahu, grandfather of the deceased.

The villagers ostensibly told the family that many such miracles had happened in the past and so they should try their luck.

Sachidananda wrapped the body in a red cloth and followed several rituals for four days. When officials of Childline, an NGO that operates a telephone helpline for children in distress, reached the village to intervene, they were not allowed to go near the spot. Villagers claimed that it was a miracle in itself that the body did not decompose.

The local administration and police, however, chose not to intervene. Ganjam SP Ashis Kumar Singh said police did not intervene as it was a “matter of family faith”.

“But the doctor said that the kid had died,” he said.

Such superstitious practice is not uncommon in the state.

Eight months ago, parents of a 10-year-old girl in Boudh district preserved her body in a cave near river Mahanadi for over a week, hoping that she would come back to life.