A 31-year-old woman from Pune was allegedly stripped and smeared with ashes by her in-laws, as part of a black magic ritual initiated by a godman who assured them that it would result in her giving birth to a male child.

According to a complaint registered at Chakan Police station in Pimpri-Chinchwad, the woman's husband and mother-in-law allegedly took her to a godman in Khed tehsil of Pune district where the godman asked her to eat ashes in front of him and also gave some ashes to her mother in law to be smeared on the woman's body.