Rationalists sleep in ‘haunted’ Telangana village to allay fears
HYDERABAD: A selfstyled godman told them a ghost was haunting the village and killing only men. He said he would perform some pujas to drive away the ghost and demanded ₹70,000.
BABU GOGINENI, rationalist
Around 20 rationalists slept all through the night in a graveyard to disprove the rumours of a female ghost haunting a Telangana village, which was abandoned by men a few days ago.
The rationalists belonging to Science for Society and directed by Babu Gogineni led an innovative campaign called #selfiewithghost and #dinewithdevil in Kasiguda village of Lakshman Chanda block, about 25km from Nirmal district headquarters, on Saturday and Sunday. The aim of the campaign was to allay the apprehensions of villagers about a female ghost killing men for the last couple of years.
“We took a couple of villagers also along with us to the graveyard. We walked in the darkness to the places where some villagers claimed they had seen the ghost. We spent time till midnight before sleeping there. When we woke up in the morning, no one had been attacked by any ghost,” Gogineni told HT.
“We also set up video cameras in the streets but nothing unusual was captured in them,” Gogineni said.
For the past few weeks, Kasiguda was rocked by rumours that a female ghost was moving in the village killing men.
The reason behind the hearsay was that three men of the village died suddenly in a span of one month.
In all, 11 people died mysteriously in the last couple of years and all were men. This led to the rumour that a female ghost was haunting men.
There are 45 families in the village with a total population of around 350 and majority of them work as stone cutters.
Most of the men fled the village in the last one month and only women and children, besides some old men, were left behind.
Some other men who cintinue to stay in the village do not venture out at night.
“Interestingly, all of them are Muslims. Our inquiries revealed that a self-styled godman told them that a ghost was haunting the village and killing only men. He told them that he would perform some pujas to drive away the ghost and demanded ₹70,000 from them. When we went to the village, the people were collecting money to pay the godman. We lodged a complaint with the police,” Gogineni said.
The local police authorities also deputed four constables in the village to help the rationalists in their campaign in the last two days. “We managed to convince some of the villagers to return home. We conducted an awareness programme, a science show and even arranged a walk on burning embers to prove that there are no ghosts. A psychiatrist, Dr Rajender, from Hyderabad counselled them thoroughly and allayed all their apprehensions,” he said.