Man gathers people on Maharashtra's Samruddhi Expressway to chant mantras to prevent accidents; booked

Twenty-five people were charred to death after a private bus caught fire on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra's Buldhana district on July 1.

A case has been registered against a man for assembling people at a spot on the Samruddhi Expressway where a bus fire claimed 25 lives, and installing a 'mahamrutyunjay yantra' and reciting mantras to prevent accidents, police said on Wednesday.

The Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway (HT)

Hamid Dabholkar of the Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an anti-superstition group, had objected to it and demanded police action into the matter.

Twenty-five people were charred to death after a private bus caught fire on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra's Buldhana district on July 1.

On July 23, Buldhana resident Nilesh Adhav gathered some people at the accident site at Pimpalkhuta in Sindkhedraja area of the expressway and installed a 'mahamrutyunjay yantra' and recited the 'mahamrutyunjay japa', as per the police.

Adhav claimed on social media that due to the 'mahamrutyunjay yantra', no accident will take place within five-km stretch and misled the people, the police said.

The Buldhana police on Monday registered a case against Adhav under provisions of the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013 and a probe was on into it.

Notably, more than 80 people have lost their lives in road accidents over the last six months on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra, an official earlier said.