Two weeks after Dabholkar's murder: State registers first case under anti-black magic law

Itrsquos been a long time coming The first ever case under the state governmentrsquos antiblack magic ordinance issued days after the brutal murder of the lawrsquos champion Dr Narendra Dabholkar was registered yesterday in Nanded Activists from Maharashtra Andhashradhha Nirmoolan Samiti helped cops charge the duo who duped about 100 people by prescribing magical remedies for incurable diseases at their clinic The miscreants were arrested on Monday night under section 420 of IPC and section 3 2 of the ordinance was added on Tuesday evening They didnrsquot see this coming Activists from Dabholkarrsquos Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti helped cops charge the duo above Police officials used a decoy to lure the culprits into their trap The alleged quacks Sayel Khan Liyakat Khan 25 and his associate Amiruddin Abdul Latif 40 are in police custody since September 5 They hail from Ghaziabad and Meerut respectively and according to the police they were allegedly running their clinic since last month at Bhagyanagar in the heart of Nanded city ldquoWe arrested them under various sections of IPC including 420 On Tuesday evening we added section 3 2 of the antiblack magic and superstition ordinance This section prohibits superstition and magical remedy If proven guilty the accused will get imprisoned for up to seven yearsrdquo additional superintendent of police from Nanded Tanaji Chikhale said While explaining their modus operandi Vijay Kabade deputy superintendent of police Nanded said ldquoAfter discovering that the locals were interested in their lsquotreatmentrsquo they had the nerve to issue an advertisement about their clinic in a local newspaper We laid a trap on Monday and sent in a decoy After some magical powders and sacred threads had changed hands we immediately arrested themrdquou00a0 Dr Narendra Dabholkaru00a0 ldquoFrom the clinic we seized receipt books which bear out that since last one month at least hundred people have been duped by the duo The offenders were claiming that with magical powers they could treat diseases like AIDSrdquo Kabade maintained Meanwhile Dr Dabholkarrsquos associates expressed satisfaction at the developments ldquoAfter the arrests we met the additional SP and requested him to include sections from the new ordinance We even provided him a copy of the regulationsrdquo said professor Shivdas Hamand state secretary of MANS u00a0 Vijay Kabade Nanded DSP Former MANS member commits suicide A former president of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti from PimpriChinchwad unit Jawahar Shah 65 allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence yesterday morning Police said that they have found suicide note in which the deceased has said that he was fed up of fighting with cancer Shah worked as an activist of MANS for several years before being elevated as the president of PCMC unit He also worked as a teacher with the Jain Gujarati Sangh and was associated with the Pimpri Chinchwad Jain Mahasangh A law is born On August 24 with the consent of Governor K Sankaranarayanan the state introduced the antiblack magic and superstition ordinance just four days after Dr Dabholkar was shot dead u00a0 Aug 21 The date when the antiblack magic and superstition ordinance was passed by the state 100 Approximate number of people duped by the duo