3 booked for duping Mumbai-based woman of ₹13 lakh by promising to cure her daughter’s illness through rituals

Mumbai A 70-year-old from Mazagaon was cheated of ₹13 lakh by three men from Uttar Pradesh (UP) who duped her on the pretext of curing her mentally ill daughter

Mumbai A 70-year-old from Mazagaon was cheated of ₹13 lakh by three men from Uttar Pradesh (UP) who duped her on the pretext of curing her mentally ill daughter by performing rituals in an ashram. The Sewri police are on the lookout for the three men.

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According to the police, the complainant’s 43-year-old daughter has been undergoing treatment for the illness for the past 25 years. The complainant has been exploring all possible options for the treatment of her daughter and had performed several kinds of pujas for her daughter to get cured. She used to thus often get phone calls from priests, said the police.

Last year in November, the complainant received a call from a man, identified as Krishnanand Shastri. He told the complainant that he works in a UP-based ashram, where many people suffering from several serious illnesses were cured. Shashtri told the complainant that he knew about her daughter’s illness and offered to provide cure for it by reciting prayers and performing a special puja at the ashram.

The complainant agreed and in December 2019, Shastri asked her to pay ₹5,000 for the puja. She transferred the money into his bank account, stated the police complaint filed by the woman. Later, Shastri began calling her frequently and under the pretext of conducting rituals asked her to deposit money in his account, the police said.

Seeing no progress in her daughter’s condition, the woman began raising suspicion about Shastri. When he called her the next time, she refused to pay him. He then threatened her and said that if she stops the puja abruptly, her daughter would end her life and her family would face several serious problems. Worried about the consequences, the woman continued transferring the money into Shastri’s account, the complaint stated.

This year in April, the woman received a call from a man named Vinod Kumar who informed her that he was the man who was calling for so many months by posing as Shashtri. He also told the complainant that he was doing so at the behest of two people – Abhishek Pandey and Prashant Pandey – who have been duping her under the pretext of performing puja for her daughter’s illness, said the police.

The woman then filed a police complaint, following which a first information report (FIR) under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 3 of Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Unwholesome and Aghori Practices and Witchcraft Act, 2013 was filed against Pandey and Prashant.

“We suspect that someone known to the family may have helped the fraudsters in learning about the illness of the complainant’s daughter. We are in the process of obtaining the details of the transactions and will try to locate the suspects based on the information provided by the bank,” an officer said.