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Conviction Spiritual healing, divination, and mediumship Traditional healing practitioners Robertsganj, Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India · 2026

India: self-styled 'ojha' faith healer and an accomplice sentenced to life for assaulting a woman under an exorcism pretext

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-styled ojha (traditional exorcist/faith healer)

Organization

No organization assigned

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The victim submitted to isolation with the defendant specifically because he held himself out as an ojha capable of exorcism/healing; that claimed spiritual power over her affliction was the pretext for the assault.

  • Exorcism or deliverance
  • Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2026-06-15 · conviction and sentence

    Additional Sessions Court (FTC), Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Ojha Jagdev Sharma, a self-styled traditional exorcist, and his associate Lalu Sharma were convicted of sexually assaulting a woman from Varanasi district whom Sharma had isolated on the pretext of performing jhaad-phoonk (exorcism) to cure her. Additional Sessions Judge Bipin Kumar sentenced both to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh each, with half of each fine directed to the victim; the case had been pending since the woman's 2017 complaint.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • exorcism ritual (jhaad-phoonk) used to isolate the victim
  • invoked spiritual power to compel compliance

Cited record

Sources

regional newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'दुष्कर्म के दोषी ओझा समेत दो को आजीवन कारावास की सजा', Swatantra Prabhat, Jun. 2026.

Report of the conviction, sentence and exorcism-pretext facts.

regional newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'सोनभद्र में दुष्कर्म मामले में दाे अभियुक्तों को आजीवन कारावास, अर्थदंड भी लगा', Tarun Mitra.

Corroborating regional report of the same verdict.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis
https://www.swatantraprabhat.com/article/181300/two-including-ojha-convicted-of-rape-sentenced-to-life-imprisonment Corpus classification: regional-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 2945940430346502ceadc5e2bcd14e329a1cd71c19bd15a5dcce146c25179723
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis
https://www.tarunmitra.in/state/uttar-pradesh/in-the-rape-case-in-sonbhadra-two-accused-were-also/article-147710 Corpus classification: regional-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 00ce882f4bf3ad4b91a598a2bcd53a3781812b55aab677755f46eee58d924844
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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