Three-year-old Bengal girl tortured with needles dies in hospital

A three-year-old girl, who was allegedly made a voodoo doll by a man practising black magic and had been inserted with seven needles in her body, died today at a state-run hospital here.

The Purulia-based girl, who was admitted to the government-run SSKM hospital had undergone a surgery on Wednesday and doctors had extracted seven needles from her body.

She died at around 2.40 a.m today, the hospital sources said.

"The child had a successful surgery and was recuperating at the ICU. She was under observation for 48 hours. But it seems the trauma was too much for her to bear.

"She could have developed some lung infection. But we will have to wait for the post mortem which will be conducted before the body is handed over to her family," a senior doctor of the hospital said.

The girl, he said, was suffering from severe trauma due to alleged sexual abuse and the torture by the man.

The mother, who worked as a domestic help in the man's house, had initially taken the girl to Bankura Medical College and Hospital for treatment of cold and cough but doctors there, after seeing the wounds on her body informed the police.

She was then brought to SSKM Hospital, where doctors found seven needles inserted in her body in such a way that they had pierced her organs.

Her tormentor, a former home guard, has been booked under POCSO Act and police are on the look out for him, a senior state police officer said.

-PTI