A 21-year-old Vasai resident, who was keen to be “reunited with his dead father” was rescued from a woman who practised black magic and had subjected him to physical torture over the last two months.

Jitesh Ghoshe, a resident of Nirmal village in Vasai, was depressed after his father’s death a few months ago. He had heard of a woman from the same village, Darshana Jadhav, 35, who “could help him see his father through black magic”, said the police.

This comes at a time when strict laws are being enacted against superstition and black magic.

The torture that followed left the sinewy-bodied youngster with scars on his face. The woman allegedly gave him milk laced with sleep-inducing pills and singed and scalded his body by placing cottonballs dipped in hot oil and even pierced his neck.

All through this, she assured him that this was being done to help him “meet his dead father”.

She told Ghoshe she was “exorcising a ghost from his body” to help his “dead father come alive”.

Though the youngster’s family knew of the torture, they feared that Jadhav would harm Ghoshe if they objected to what she was doing.

“The pain was unbearable but I was too drowsy... Once, she was chanting some mantra, a sickle in hand. She told me she would sacrifice my head,” said Ghoshe who was rescued by a local activist, Rajeshshree Goythale.

Anil Thorve, in-charge of Vasai gaon police station, said Jadhav is absconding. We will soon lodge a complaint,” he said.