Senior citizen loses Rs 26 lakh to blind faith

PUNE: Superstition led an elderly man to a trickster and he lost nearly Rs 27 lakh in the process.
The Hadapsar police on Sunday night arrested 38-year-old Sunil Ramsharan Saroj from Kharadi for cheating a 60-year-old man of Rs 26.20 lakh since October 2016. Saroj had promised to perform certain rituals that would enable his daughter-in-law conceive a boy.

The woman is a housewife and already has two daughters and a son. Her husband is a grocer. The couple live in a joint family with their in-laws.

The father-in-law wanted another grandson and got in touch with his old friend, Saroj, as they had worked in the same company.

The duo met an unidentified woman who 'hypnotised' the father-in-law. She told him his son was a victim of black magic and certain ritual were needed so that his wife will give birth to a boy and will prosper in his business.

Inspector Vishwajeet Khule said, "The father-in-law gave Rs 26.20 lakh to the suspect but nothing happened even after the rituals were performed. His son and daughter-in-law were opposed to the idea of visiting Saroj for the black magic."

Meanwhile, the older man was hospitalised on December 9, 2017. His son wanted money to paying hospital bills when he found that his father had paid lakhs of rupees to the suspect and there was nothing left in his bank account.

The suspect was arrested under the Indian Penal Code and Maharashtra Anti-Superstition Black Magic Act. A magisterial court has sent him in police custody till February 9, he added.