BHOPAL: This real life incident has the making of a scene from some vampire movie. A 22-year-old woman in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh has told the police that her husband drank her blood for the past three years. "He used to take a syringe and draw blood from my arms," Deepa Ahirwar said. "He would then empty it in a glass and drink it. For three years he did this on a regular basis, threatening me of dire consequences if I revealed this to anyone."

Deepa was married to an agricultural labourer, Mahesh Ahirwar, in Shikarpura village in 2007. A few months after the marriage, Mahesh started drawing blood from his wife's veins and consuming it. He said it made him strong and did not stop even when Deepa was pregnant. It was after she gave birth to a son seven months ago that she started protesting. She told the police that she would feel drained and nauseating after the blood extraction. When she resisted, her husband beat her up.

Earlier this month, Deepa, with the baby in her arms, escaped to her parents' house under the Patera police station area. When she narrated the story to her farmer father, he took her to the local police station to register a case against Mahesh. But the police said that the case was not under their jurisdiction and the matter should be reported to the Hindoriya police station as the victim resided with her husband in that area.

Deepa and her parents took the matter to Hindoriya, where they were directed to the women counseling section. Neither Hindoriya nor Patera registered a case against the absconding Mahesh. When the residents of Shikarpura came to know of Mahesh's deeds, they took up Deepa's cause. The Hindoriya police have now registered an FIR that she was physically tortured by her husband.