Woman guard forced to dip hand in boiling oil

RAJKOT: In a barbaric incident, a woman’s hand was forcibly thrust into boiling oil in a frying pan by a tantrik or black magic practitioner and three of his associates including two women as a part of the trial by fire. The woman also charged the accused with duping her of Rs 1.10 lakh.
In her complaint registered with Pradyumannagar police station, Sharda Tharu (35), alleged that tantrik, identified as Nilesh Bapu, a woman identified as Rukhsana and their associates, Lakha, Sanjay and his wife forced her hand into boiling oil.

On December 12, Rukhsana picked up a fight with Tharu, accusing her of spreading rumours about her illicit relationship with Bapu. When Tharu pleaded innocence, Rukhsana said if she was innocent, she would have to face the trial by fire.

“When Tharu, who works as a security guard at Rajkot Civil Hospital, came out of the hospital after duty hours on the evening of December 12, Bapu, Rukhsana, Sanjay and his wife forcibly took her to Meldi Mata temple, where they had kept the frying pan with oil on the boil. They forced Tharu’s right hand into the oil thrice,” B M Kataria, inspector of Pradhumannagar police station said.

The accused also allegedly thrashed Tharu, who claimed that a financial fraud was the main reason behind the crime.

Eight months ago, Lakha had taken Rs 20,000 credit from Tharu, which he promised to pay within eight months. When Tharu asked Lakha to return the amount, Lakha promised her to make her experience rain of money with the help of a tantrik. He took Tharu to a tantrik, identified as Ghanshyam, who took a total amount of Rs 90,000 from Tharu in instalments for performing rituals thrice.

Ghanshyam told Tharu that he had put a drum full of wheat grains in her house, and that after one and a half months when he would return and open it, the drum would be full of money. However when after three months nothing happened, Tharu realized the fraud.

“Tharu has alleged that as Lakha did not want to return her money, he framed false accusations against Tharu and forced her into trial by fire. Then whenever Tharu asked him for money, Lakha would threaten to get her terminated from her job. Tired of the threats, eventually, Tharu approached the police,” said Kataria.