Man booked for performing black magic and duping woman of ₹25 lakh

Mumbai: A man has been booked by the police for allegedly performing black magic and extracting ₹25 lakh from a 33-year-old woman under the pretext of purchasing a shop and renting it to her

Mumbai: A man has been booked by the police for allegedly performing black magic and extracting ₹25 lakh from a 33-year-old woman under the pretext of purchasing a shop and renting it to her. The woman discovered that the man had misused the money and when she demanded her money back, the accused refused to repay.

According to the police, the complainant, Jyoti Gowda, 33, lives with her daughter in Jogeshwari East. Her husband died in 2014. (shutterstock)

The accused, identified as Hanif Khan, is a resident of Virar.

According to the police, the complainant, Jyoti Gowda, 33, lives with her daughter in Jogeshwari East. Her husband died in 2014.

She runs two snack centres in Andheri (West) for the past 15 years. The owner of one of the shops, which she had taken on lease, wanted to sell the shop hence Gowda introduced him to Hanif Khan, who was known to Gowda for quite some time and had earlier shown interest in buying the shop.

In September 2021, Khan visited Gowda’s house. He asked the complainant for a loan of ₹1 lakh to buy the shop assuring that the money would be refunded immediately after the purchase of the shop.

This accused also promised to rent the shop to Gowda after buying it, the police said.

“Hanif Khan came to my house two or three times and performed some black magic rituals to induce me to give him the money. He kept on demanding and I continued to give him money. From September 2021 till March 2022, I gave him a total of ₹25 lakh on multiple occasions,” Gowda said in her statement to the police.

When the complainant demanded her money back, he promised to sell his property at Virar and return the money, but he never did it.

When the complainant insisted on repayment, the accused lodged a complaint against her with the DN Nagar police claiming she was harassing him for the money. At this time Gowda realized that Khan has embezzled his money.

The complainant has taken loans from acquaintances, sold gold and took loans from banks and gave money to Hanif Khan, an officer said.

As Khan was not returning the money despite repeated requests, Gowda slipped into depression and one day tried to commit suicide by consuming some poisonous substance, fortunately, she survived, the FIR states.

The woman on Sunday filed the complaint against Khan at the Meghwadi police station. “We are in process of verifying her allegations and collecting evidence. The investigation is on. No arrest is made yet,” said DCP Maheshwar Reddy of Zone 10.

He has been booked under sections 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 2(1) and 3(2) of The Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013.