Hyderabad: Sleuths of SOT of Bhongir Zone and Bhongir Town police have jointly nabbed an inter-state gang of fake Babas and Sadhus, who were cheating innocent public in the guise of black magic and collected huge amounts through Hawala.
The criminals were charged under Sections 420, 506 IPC and Sec. 5 read with 7 of Drugs and Magic Remedies Act (objectionable advertisement Act of 1954) of Bhongir town PS.
The police said the accused disguised as Babas and sadhus were moving in the localities in search of persons with mental disabilities and confusing them that they were having some Doshas such like sarpadosham, Nagadosham and so on and in the name of performing occult pujas were collecting huge amounts through Hawala.
In this manner, they trapped Kondal Reddy, 53 years, of Ramakrishnapuram village in Bhongir Mandal, Yadadri Bhongiri District.
Police said on November 29, 2020, complainant Kondal Reddy while returning home from his agriculture field, suddenly a snake came across to his motorcycle due to which he lost his balance and fell down and sustained injuries. On December 6, 2020 when he was at his business place (transport office) the accused Sanjunath and Ghorakhnath went to his office for collection of biksha and enquired him about the cause of injuries.
When Kondal Reddy narrated the incident, Sanjunath and Ghorakhnath told him that he was having Sarpa dosha and to come out of it, they have to perform puja. The victim believed them and paid Rs 41,000 for puja articles. Later, accused Sanjunath, Ghorakhnath along with Ramnath, Jonnath, Govindnath and Arjunnath visited his house and performed some puja and collected another Rs 41,000. Likewise, they collected Rs 37,71,000 from the date of incident to February 2022.
The accused A1 to A6 used to speak to the victim over telephone and made him to deposit cash with the hawala agents Punaram, Vasnaram, Prakash Jota, Prakash Prajapathi, Ramesh Prajapathi, who, in turn, transferred the money to Sanjunath and his associates through hawala agents.
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