A temple priest, who went to perform exorcism on a woman at the latter’s residence five days ago, allegedly raped her after sending away the husband somewhere else.

The incident occurred under Nishatpura police station area on February 6. The matter was, however, reported to the police on Tuesday. The accused is absconding.

The woman (34) used to visit the Singarcholi temple daily for the past four years. About a month ago, temple priest Santosh Kumar Kaushik told her that she was possessed by an evil spirit and needed to perform a special puja (prayer) to exorcise herself. The priest told the woman he would perform the exorcism himself.

Accordingly, Kaushik went to the woman’s house to perform the puja and told her husband, an auto-rickshaw driver, to go out of the house.

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