“Baba” who sought corpse for breaking black magic curse arrested

He told a woman her husband was cursed with black magic, which can only be cured by performing a ritual using a dead body

THANE: A self-proclaimed godman who allegedly asked a woman to procure dead body to ‘cure’ her family from a ‘black magic curse’, and defrauded her to the tune of ₹8.87 lakh, was arrested on Saturday

“Baba” who sought corpse for breaking black magic curse arrested

The complainant, Nusra Akhtar Ansari, 46, lives with her family in Thane. Her husband has been ailing since 2023. She had reached out to various places for his medical treatment, but nothing helped. In October 2023, a fraud approached her in the shop she was working in, introducing himself as Hazrat Baba. He convinced her someone had cast black magic curse on her husband and son. He then offered to perform certain rituals, without which she will not be able to save them both.

Ansari said the ‘Baba’ performed fake rituals, like passing an egg over her husband’s head and pretending to extract a nail from it. Then, he persuaded her that only an elaborate ritual involving a corpse could break the curse. For this, he asked her to bring a corpse. When she refused, he demanded ₹10 lakh from her. Nusra initially gave him ₹6 lakh, then took loans of ₹3 lakh over time to pay him. Despite these rituals, her husband showed no improvement. Feeling duped, she filed a complaint at Shanti Nagar police station on last week.

The police registered a case against Hazrat Baba under 318(4) (cheating) and 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013. A team swiftly tracked and nabbed Hazrat Baba from Bhiwandi. Confirming the arrest, senior inspector Vinayak Gaikwad, urged citizens to report similar fraudulent activities, and asked other victims of Hazrat Baba to come forward with complaints.