Pathanamthitta: Police arrested a woman who has been practising sorcery in Malayalappuzha. Vasanthi Amma Madam Shobhana, aged 52, has been taken into custody by the police after local residents and youth organisations laid siege to her house this morning.

Residents from the area informed the Police that the woman had been using children for acts of sorcery. Video clips of a child falling unconscious amid sorcery had surfaced earlier.

According to the locals, such acts of pooja and exorcism are being done here for the past eight years. People, including children, are brought from many places for such acts. While the woman conducts a pooja in the name of  exorcism, she shouts out cuss words and keeps swearing during the act. When the locals confront her about it, she strips and threatens to complain that they assaulted her.

When the police reach to probe, she swears at them. She is an alcohol addict. She wears modern dresses and jeans while she goes out, locals said.

Many have allegedly stayed with her as husbands already, the locals added. The man, who currently stays with her, could not be taken into custody. During the sorcery, children and adults fall unconscious. There is also a complaint that she threatened and forcefully took money from a woman who had reached for a sorcery act but left without doing the pooja.

The locals, who raise their voices against her, are threatened by her. She throws flowers and coins in front of their houses, threatening that they will die on the 41st day. The local residents added that she has also used goons.