Parents believe in social media post, pack boy’s body in salt to bring him back to life

New Delhi: In a bizarre incident from Sirwar village of Ballari in Karnataka, the parents of a boy, who died after drowning in a pond, covered his body in heaps of salt. After believing a social media post, they packed the body in salt hoping to see their son coming back to life on September 4.

A 10-year-old boy named Suresh H drowned in a pond when he had gone swimming. The family and other villagers believed a social media post, which said if the body of a drowned victim is packed in salt for four to five hours the person will come back to life. Following the instructions from the unsubstantiated post, they covered the dead body in salt.

The family was desperate to get their child back and they bought 10 kg of salt and covered the body. They waited for six hours for some miracle to happen, but as expected, the boy did not come back to life. “The parents saw the social media post recently, and in their desperation to bring Suresh back to life, they followed the instructions. We bought about 10 kg of salt, packed the body and waited for six hours, but nothing happened,” Thippeswamy Reddy, a relative, told.

Later the villagers informed the police and called the doctors, who declared the boy to be dead. Following this, the boy was cremated at the village graveyard.

Circulation of such posts on social media and people believing in them in desperate times raises a question about our society’s scientific temper.