Police say the accused fed the family sweetmeats laced with sedatives and stole the gold jewellery that they had promised to double
As the economy seemingly bottoms out, citizens are constantly searching for ways to maximise financial gains with the more gullible ones even taking recourse to sorcery and alchemy. The results are usually pretty predictable.
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Cops from Dharavi have taken into custody three tantriks involved in a cheating case that was registered with the police station a few months ago. According to officials the complainant was conned of jewellery worth Rs 6 lakh by the miscreants who promised to double the valuables through some rituals.
The three accused, identified as Mohommad Israil (24), Mohommad Sadrealam Israil Shaikh (32) and Kalimuddin Shafiq Ansari (33), were handed over to Dharavi police personnel by their Panvel counterparts this week. Speaking to MiD DAY the complainant, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “My neighbour has been in touch with the tantriks for 8 years. In our first meeting I suspected that they were frauds. However, my neighbour took the tantriks to everyone in the locality who was facing some problems.”
According to the complainant, the accused had duped denizens from the area in a variety of ways. “They didn’t succeed at some of the places, but at my house they gave my family members some peda as prasad while I was at office. The sweetmeats were laced with some drugs that make everyone unconscious. Following this they escaped with the jewellery that had been placed there during the rituals,” he said.
Speaking to MiD DAY, deputy commissioner of police (zone V) Dhananjay Kulkarni said, “A case was registered with Dharavi police station that a family was conned by three tantriks. We had taken the trio into custody for verification. During interrogation we realised that these three indeed were the cheats we were looking for.”
He added, “They have not been booked under the new anti-superstition legislation, since the FIR was registered much before the ordinance came into existence.” According to police officials the victim was duped of Rs 6 lakh in April.
“These tantriks have hoodwinked many women with this modus operandi and they have several cases registered against them at police stations across the city, one of them being Panvel. The cops there had arrested the accused, and when we came to know about this we took the trio into our custody. However, the prime accused in the case is still absconding.”
Letters of law
The three offenders have been booked under sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison etc), 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.u00a0
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