TO cure her of common cold, a five-month-old girl was allegedly branded on the chest and the abdomen by a quack at Patan village in Jamjodhpur taluka of Jamnagar district.
The girl's parents took her to a government hospital in Upleta, Rajkot district, after the brand marks turned septic. A private practitioner, to whom the girl's parents had taken her first, alerted the local health and the police departments, following which complaints were registered against the girl's parents and the quack under Sections 324 and 114 of the IPC. This is the second incident in two months where an infant has been branded in Saurashtra.
According to the complaint filed by Dr Govind Bhalodia, a private practitioner from Upleta, Ramanlal Mer and his wife took their daughter to quack Babu Koli to cure her of common cold on September 5.
"The baby was branded in two places, on the chest and the abdomen," said police adding that the baby girl sustained severe burn injuries in the process.
The Mers took their daughter to Dr Bhalodia after the brand marks turned septic. That was on September 11, said police. Bhalodia asked them to take her to the government hospital at Upleta and then registered a complaint with Jamjodhpur police. Both Mers and Koli are residents of Patan.
In July, a three-day-old baby was branded in Chotila village of Surendranagar district. Reason: She was crying incessantly.
The baby girl was admitted to the Rajkot Civil Hospital, but she succumbed to her burn injuries seven days later.