Software engineer loses ₹12 lakh to fake priests

The West Cyber police station on Monday registered a first information report based on the Bandra Kulra Complex-based engineer’s complaint

MUMBAI: A 25-year-old software engineer was duped of ₹12.30 lakh by ‘priests’ who performed rituals claiming they would end his problems. The engineer got in touch with the priests through the ‘Divine Talk’ app and made payments to them in several tranches between January and March 2025, as they threatened that leaving the rituals incomplete would result in his death, said police.

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The West Cyber police station on Monday registered a first information report based on the Bandra Kulra Complex-based engineer’s complaint. Employed at a private firm in Bandra, he downloaded Digiastro Technologies’ ‘Divine Talk’ app over two years ago and used it intermittently till late 2024, when he began facing problems in his professional life.

“In January 2025, he got the number of a spiritual guide named Nishant through the app, who called him and advised him to perform a puja and some rituals to bring stability in his life,” a police officer told Hindustan Times.

The engineer was asked to pay ₹6,300. On January 24, when he called the priest to perform the puja, he was told that a senior priest would do so and was connected to the senior priest via conference call. The senior priest quoted ₹15,300 as the fee and asked the engineer to transfer the money via UPI. The amount was later hiked to ₹28,000 and the priest said he would perform the rituals at his own place and send the engineer photos of the same as proof.

The priests then sought more money, saying more rituals required to be performed and not doing so would be dangerous. This prompted the engineer to dissolve his entire savings and pay ₹2.4 lakh to the frauds.

“Even after this, the priests said that some more rituals had to be performed, failing which the engineer would die. So he borrowed money on his credit card and paid ₹9.80 lakh to them,” said the officer quoted earlier.

It was only after the engineer confided in one of his friends that he realised he had been duped and approached the police to report the incident. The unidentified accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and IT Act, said police.