The lure of easy money blinded five property dealers, one of whom was arrested yesterday by New Panvel police for murdering the others. According to the police, the four victims were told by Chandrakant Waghmare (28), who’s also a tantrik, that if they brought a few lakh rupees he would double the money. The accused claimed since he was in possession of a nagmani (cobra pearl), all he would have to do was chant a few magic words and money would start pouring from the sky.

Police recovered bodies of the four estate agents from a farmhouse at Shirole village on November 14. The deceased were identified as Ramdas Patil, Nitin Joshi, Pritam Gharat and Balaram Topale. Ramdas’s uncle Datta Patil is vice-chairman of Panvel Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) and owner of the farmhouse.