AJMER: In a bizarre display of superstition and belief in the afterlife, a group of villagers, accompanied by a ‘bhopa’ ( tantrik ), performed a pooja at the JLN Hospital here on Saturday, claiming to summon and take back with them, the ‘soul’ of a man who died in the same hospital recently.A dozen villagers from Borada village, led by a tantrik, were found performing a pooja with fire in a pot and sprinkling water with the help of neem leaves in the male medical ward of the hospital. They said they had come to ‘collect the soul’ of their son who had died in that ward. Neither the ward boys and nor security guards could muster the courage to stop the practice. The patients also did not seem to object to the rituals.The villagers said that their son had met with an accident and was brought to JLN Hospital where he died. “We took his body for funeral but his soul was left here in hospital, and now we have came to take his soul and will keep the soul in a corner of our house,” said the nephew of the deceased. He said that the soul has now become a deity of the family.They sprinkled the ‘holy water’ around the ward and carried our rituals with fire in a pot, some eatables, a red cloth inside the ward. The tantrik even asked a patient to stand up from his bed and performed rituals there before putting some ghee in the fire.The villagers then brought the burning pot outside the hospital, where they apparently ‘fed’ the ‘soul’ of the deceased person, who according to them was hungry, by adding eatables to the fire. they then bowed down in front of the fire and later carried the ‘soul’ of their deceased relative in the very fire pot to their village.Meanwhile, when the drama of ‘catching’ the soul went on for half an hour, the hospital authorities neither intervened nor tried to stop it. “Basically, everyone is afraid of black magic and such tantrik rituals. Most of them don’t believe in such things but choose to remain silent nevertheless,” said the ward boy. Even doctors passed by the ward during the rituals without interrupting them, and even the security guards didn’t turn up to intervene.The hospital authorities said they did not interrupt the practice as the villagers believe in it and feel satisfied after the ritual. “We do not encourage such things, but also do not want to trouble a family in grief,” said a doctor from the hospital.

Stay updated with all the Latest Jaipur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.