Man playing Lord Shiva dies on Ramlila stage

Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 12: In yet another freak incident, a man playing the role of Lord Shiva in a Ramlila in Machhlishahr, suffered a massive cardiac arrest on stage and died.

The man, Ram Prasad a.k.a. Chabban Pandey, had been playing the role of Lord Shiva since the past six years. The Ramlila was stopped after Prasad's death.

The incident took place in Belasin village on Monday when 'aarti' was being performed, Ram Prasad clutched his chest and fell down.

He was immediately rushed to a nearby medical facility where the doctors declared him brought dead.

It may be recalled that in similar incidents, two artists playing Hanuman and Ravan respectively, died in the past ten days while performing in the Ramlila.

Patiram, 60, who was playing the role of Ravan, suddenly took ill during the staging of Ramlila at Aihar village in Ayodhya and fell to his death. Earlier, in the other incident, which took place in Fatehpur, Ram Swaroop died while he was enacting the role of Hanuman on stage.