Gujarat: Cheating accused temple priest held from Vapi after 12 days

VADODARA: The priest of Shri Baglamukhi Brahmastra Vidya Mandir – Dr Prashant Upadhyay – was arrested by Vadodara police on Monday from Vapi.
Upadhyay, who was later also booked for intimidating a woman, was booked on February 12 for cheating a businessman of Rs 21.8 lakh. After the businessman had lodged a cheating complaint against him, Upadhyay fled away from the city. Police officials made several efforts, but the priest managed to evade arrests.
“We had received information about his movement around Vapi based on which we kept a watch on the national highway the entire night and nabbed him as he approached our bandobust point,” said a police official. Upadhyay was brought to the city by noon and was formally arrested. Police are questioning him about where he was hiding for all these days and who all helped him during this period.
Upadhyay had cheated Devraj Pandya, owner of a machine spare parts manufacturing unit, in 2014-15 when his business was going through difficult times. Pandya was told of performing 'yagnas' and installing ‘yantras’ in his factory and home for stabilizing the business. For all the ceremonies, Pandya was asked to pay Rs 15 lakh and was also asked to shell out Rs 15,000 every month for a year as donations. Later Upadhyay asked for Rs 5 lakh from Pandya for the renovation of the temple. But when the business did not recover, Pandya realized that he had been cheated and he lodged a complaint.
Last week, a sessions court here had also denied anticipatory bail to Upadhyay.