A five-year-old boy battling leukemia (blood cancer) tragically passed away in Haridwar, Uttrakhand, after his family allegedly submerged him in River Ganga, hoping it would miraculously cure the child.
Beyond the headlines: According to news reports, the family travelled from Delhi to Haridwar on Wednesday, 24 January. The child was reportedly accompanied by his parents and another relative.
Speaking to FIT, the Superintendent of Police of Haridwar City Swantantra Kumar said that according to the family, the child had been undergoing treatment for blood and bone cancer in Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. However, the reportedly doctors had told them that "the treatment wasn't working and that the child cannot be saved."
Convinced that dipping the child in River Ganga could work miracles and save the child's life, the family brought the child to Haridwar out of desperation, and "as a last try," SP Kumar added.
How did the child die? A disturbing video surfaced showing the boy's family chanting prayers and submerging him under the water. In the video, some bystanders are seen intervening, allegedly because they noticed that the boy was underwater for too long.
In the purported video, a woman holding the child can be seen responding aggressively to those who tried to bring the child out of water. The child was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival, likely due to suffocation.
Senior police officials, however, said that considering how dire the child's condition was, there was a possibility he was already dead when he was submerged in the river.
"They didn't submerge him with the intention of drowning him," said SP Kumar. The postmortem reports are still awaited.
Eye witness accounts: According to police officials, the cab driver who drove the family from Delhi to Haridwar said that the boy looked sickly ad unresponsive throughout the trip.
Upon enquiry, he said the family had said that the child suffered from cancer and that the doctors who were treating him had given up hope.
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