BARASAT: A jatra artist died after a
cobra that she was using as a prop bit het during a performance in Hasnabad, North 24-Parganas, on Wednesday.
Ironically,
Kalidasi Mondal, 56, was acting in the jatra called '
Ma Manasa Devi', in which she was playing the eponymous lead: the goddess Manasa, who is supposed to be the protector from snakebites.
Mondal had wrapped the snake around her neck when it bit her hand. Instead of being taken to hospital, she was attended to by an ojha (quack doctor),
Dayal Biswas, who treated her till she lost consciousness. She was declared brought dead at a hospital. Biswas and the theatre group were detained, and the cobra was handed over to the forest department.
