3 die during black magic ritual in Chhattisgarh’s Korba, five detained

Police have identified the deceased as Mohammad Ashraf Memon, a scrap dealer, and Suresh Sahu, both from Korba, and Nitish Kumar from Durg

RAIPUR: Three men died under mysterious circumstances during a black magic ritual by a tantrik in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district, police said on Thursday.

Five people, including the tantrik, have been detained in connection with the deaths, police said. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Five people, including the tantrik, have been detained in connection with the deaths, police said.

Police have identified the deceased as Mohammad Ashraf Memon, a scrap dealer, and Suresh Sahu, both from Korba, and Nitish Kumar from Durg. The three were in their early forties and were at Memon’s house in the district’s Kudri village under Urga police station limits.

Korba superintendent of police (SP) Siddharth Tiwari said investigators had seized ₹5 lakh cash from the spot along with material that indicates “some kind of occult ritual was going on”.

Tiwari said the victims had gathered along with some others at Memon’s house, along with a tantrik from Bilaspur who promised to perform a ritual that would multiply the money by four times.

The tantrik started the ritual around 5 pm, and told the participants five hours later that if they strangled themselves, their money would multiply, the SP said.

He added that the men complied with the instruction and attempted to strangle themselves and passed out at some point. Tiwari said Ashraf’s family members rushed him and the others to the hospital but they were declared dead on arrival.