Childless for nine years, couple fall into fake tantrik’s trap; lose over 1L

Rajkot: A couple yearning for a child for nine years fell into the trap of superstition and lost Rs 1.3 lakh to a tantrik who promised them that the woman will bear a normal child even as several doctors had advised abortion as the fetus was abnormal.
Following a complaint lodged by the victim Bakul Chavda, the Paddhari police booked tantrik Mukesh Muchhadia of Nayara village.
Chavda and Bharati were married for nine years but they did not have a child. After consulting several doctors and taking medications, Bharati conceived in April 2021. However, the sonography revealed that the fetus was not normal, hence the doctor suggested abortion.
Meanwhile, Chavda got to know about Muchhadia through some acquaintance and went to meet him.
Muchhadiya assured them that the unborn child would be completely normal and said that Bharati was under the spell of black magic. Under the garb of performing rituals, he took Rs 80,000 from Chavda over the past few months.
However, when Bharati entered the seventh month of pregnancy, they again went for sonography which confirmed the earlier doctor’s report.
“As feared, the child born was abnormal. When Chavda contacted Muchhadia, he said some more rituals will have to be performed for one month and asked for Rs 50,000 more. Chavda then sold his gold pendant and gave him the money,” said a police officer.
When nothing worked even after a month, Chavda contacted Jayant Pandya, founder of Vigyan Jatha, an organization that creates awareness about superstitions.
Chavda submitted the recordings of the phone conversations with the tantrik as well as some videos after which Pandya helped him lodge a complaint.