A 17-year old girl was forced to eat buffalo dung allegedly to exorcise evil spirits who had possessed her, police sources said in Latur on Tuesday.

The incident occurred in Dhangarwadi village, near Chakur in the district last week and came to light after a villager lodged a complaint with the local police.

According to the sources, the girl and two other women relatives were accused of being haunted by evil spirits as they regularly quarrelled with the menfolk in the household.

Their relatives forcibly took them to a tantric who assured them that he could exorcise the evil spirits from the women.

When the girl protested, the tantric became furious and ordered her to be tied down.

As her relatives pinned and tied her down, the tantric allegedly forced globs of buffalo-dung into her mouth which she choked and swallowed.

Soon after the complaint, the Chakur police launched investigations and have arrested five of her relatives.

A secret video recording of the incident has gone viral on social media and several civil society members, including Hamid Dabholkar, son of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar have strongly condemned it.

Despite repeated attempted, Latur superintendent of police Shivajirao Rathod was not available for comments in the matter.