Burdwan, Nov. 9: Tara Chowdhury had almost lost her life to the “devil”.

Diagnosed with viral encephalitis, the 14-year-old is battling for life in Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.

A resident of Talbagan in the heart of Burdwan town, Tara was made to lie under the open sky last night, her hands and feet pinned down by family members. An ojha (witch doctor), Siddheswar Besra, rained lashes on her with a broom as he performed a yagna to exorcise her from the spell of an evil spirit.

As Tara groaned in pain, her neighbours watched in silence in a district the government trumpets as 100 per cent literate.

Tara’s father Shankar said his daughter had started having convulsions on Tuesday morning. She also had high fever. When “elders in the neighbourhood told me she was under the spell of an evil spirit”, Shankar decided to engage the ojha.

A severely bruised Tara was taken to hospital this morning. When the authorities there learnt of her ordeal, they lodged a police complaint. A hunt is on for the ojha, said Rabindranath Mukherjee, the additional superintendent of Burdwan police.