In Chennai, man cons pal of Rs 2 crore claiming to talk to Sai Baba's soul

CHENNAI: Claiming he could communicate with the soul of the late Sai Baba of Puttaparthi and those of a host of deceased people, a 52-year-old man from Kerala cheated his friend, a Chennai resident, of Rs 2 crore, collected over a four-year period from 2015 to 2019 and then went underground.
The CCB of the city police arrested Subramani on Wednesday and a court sent him to jail. A case had been registered in 2022 and Subramani had been absconding since his anticipatory bail was rejected by the court concerned.
A police officer said the complainant, Gautham Sivagami, 52, of Anderson Road in Egmore, first came in contact with Subramani in 2005 when the two men were employed in a private company in Nigeria. They became friends and their families too drew close. "Knowing that Gautham was a spiritual person, Subramani performed several rituals where he 'spoke' with departed souls. On one occasion, he made Gautham believe he was speaking with his deceased mother. At another time, he 'showed' he could speak to the late Sai Baba," said the officer. In subsequent rituals over the years, Gautham in his complaint said, incidents occurred in which plates in the pooja room moved and a lemon appeared from nowhere. All these, he later learned, were sleights of hand.
"Subramani also sent emails to Gautham containing the alleged conversation he had with Gautham's deceased mother. In several cases, Subramani had taken ATM cards that belonged to Gautham and withdrew money. Gautham said he was so taken in by Subramani that he even shaved his head and made modifications to his house and took important life decisions on his instructions," said the officer. All this came at a cost.
Gautham, who transferred Rs 2 crore on several occasions during the four-year period, finally realised he was being duped and approached police. By then, Subramani had fled. After a thorough investigation, the Entrustment Document Fraud (EDF) wing officers of the CCB arrested Subramani from his house in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.