Pune priest arrested in hospital ICU rituals case

Pune: A priest was arrested on Thursday for allegedly performing some 'rituals' in the ICU of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital here for recovery of a 25-year-old woman patient, police said.

The accused, identified as Sachin Yerwadekar, and private doctor Satish Chavan were booked under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practises and Black Magic Act after the video of the alleged incident went viral on social media.

A case was lodged against the duo by the brother of the patient Sandhya Sonawane who died of multiple organ failure on March 12, a day after the rituals were allegedlyperformed.

"The accused Sachin Yerwadekar is a priest at the Parvati Devasthan Trust in the city. He was remanded in police custody for three days," said Alankar police station seniorinspector  Rekha Salunke. Dr Chavan is still at large.

The deceased woman's relative had claimed that Dr Chavan, who runs a private hospital, had advised a surgery to remove a lump in Sonawane's chest, and as per his advise, she underwent the surgery.

Sonawane was admitted to the ICU of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital after her condition deteriorated.

The alleged incident occurred on March 11 when Dr Chavan brought along the priest to perform some rituals. "This man took out some items from his bag and wavedthem from her head to toe while chanting something. We didn't have any prior knowledge about it, so we recorded the whole incident on mobile," the relative had said.

The hospital management had said its staff had no role in the entire episode.

Members of the Maharashtra Andha-shraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Maharashtra Superstition Eradication Committee) had sought registration of a complaint against the doctor.