**Kandhamal:** A video of a handicapped priest hung upside down above the holy hearth and undergoing a secret ritual in a temple is doing rounds on social media. The priest loses his grip and is about to fall in the fire beneath when the other co-priests and onlookers drag him out immediately, but he is critically burnt in the process.
Notably, the handicapped priest identified as Bhawani Shankar Nanda had a dream in which he was directed by the Goddess that if he follows such a ritual, he will be cured of all his physical deformities. Staunchly believing in this superstitious dream, he went ahead and conducted this ritual on last Saturday in the Mahamayee Temple of Bhaguamuda village under Baliguda PS in Odisha’s Khandamal district.
As he hung upside down holding the ‘trisul’ in his hand over the holy hearth, the other priests and devotees hurled ‘jhuna’ (incense powder) to invoke the fire. After a while, the hanging priest lost his grip and was about to fall on the hearth when he was rescued by his co-priests. But he got critically burnt in the process.
Instead of taking him to the hospital, they treated him in the temple itself.
A vigilant onlooker shot the whole episode and shared it on social media making it viral.
When the police got to know about it, they reached the spot and admitted the ailing priest in the Baliguda sub-divisional hospital.
The doctors have started his medication but informed that there are 70 percent burns, making his condition very critical.
Meanwhile, the police have started its investigation into the incident.
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