A 37-year-old woman died on Wednesday morning after a self-styled godman allegedly hit her in the head after claiming that he could cure her headache in Karnataka's Hassan district. The victim is identified as Parvathi, a resident of Gowdarahalli in Hassan and the accused is identified as Manu (42) of Bekka village in the same district. The accused is absconding, said the police. The incident came to light when Parvathi's daughter Chaitra filed a police complaint with Shravanabelagola police on Thursday. The police said that a doctor of Channarayapatna government hospital also alerted them about it and a murder case was registered. According to the police, Chaitra is the only daughter of Paravthi and her husband Kumar, who had passed away years ago. Parvathi was living with Chaitra and her husband Jayanth in Bengaluru. Parvathi had been complaining of headache for two months and she was taken to three hospitals but the doctors told her that she did not have any problem. But the pain continued to haunt Parvathi, said Chaitra in her complaint. Parvathi's relative Manjula, meanwhile, asked her to come to Bekka village to consult the godman to cure the headache, said the complaint. On November 29, Parvathi left for Manjula's house and on December 2, she went to a temple to meet the priest Manu. Manu gave a lemon to Parvathi and asked her to come back the next day which she did. He then asked her to come again on December 7, said the complaint. When Parvathi went to Manu again around 10 am on Tuesday along with a few other villagers, he started beating her up in the head, hand and other parts of the body with a stick, as part of his 'treatment', as per the complaint. Parvathi collapsed and though she was given lemon juice, she did not recover. She was taken to Channarayapatna hospital where she succumbed to injuries around 3.30 am the next day, said the police. Though they are yet to receive the postmortem report, according to the doctors, the death was due to head injuries, the police said.
