Some of the 418 suicides reported from MP’s Sehore district were due to “possession by ghosts”, the state government informed the Assembly Wednesday, prompting the Opposition to ask if the government was superstitious.

Congress MLA Shailendra Patel sought to know from Home Minister Bhupendra Singh the number of suicides in Sehore in the last three years, details of each victim and reasons behind the suicides. Singh said 418 suicides had been reported from Sehore in the last 30 months. “Possessed by ghosts’’ was listed as the reason behind a few suicides. This prompted Patel to ask if the government believed in ghosts.

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Singh then said the “cause of suicide’’ was based on statements of the victims’ relatives. Ruling out suicides by farmers, he said family of none of the victims have cited loan or economic hardship as the reason.

Outside the House, Patel said: “I was surprised when the government attributed some deaths to presence of ghosts.”

Singh claimed he gave no such reply and said the government was not superstitious.

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