JAIPUR: A 20-year-old Mumbai-based girl was rescued from Nagaur on Monday night after she was brought here by a tantrik on the pretext that he would protect her from ‘bad luck’ with help of ‘magic spells’. The police arrested the accused tantrik for kidnapping the girl and took both of them to Mumbai on Tuesday. The police said that the girl was pursuing engineering in architecture and came in contact with the accused after her close relative died.

The girl was rescued in a joint operation by Mumbai police and Nagaur’s Kotwali police. According to an officer in Kotwali, the tantric, Mohammed Saied alias Sheikh (55), belongs to Nagaur area. “He was recently staying in Mumbai’s Andheri area. The girl was in touch with him for the past five months,” said the officer.

He added that the girl’s uncle, to whom she was very close, died. “She was in grief and met Mohammed who posed himself as a tantrik. Soon the girl came under his influence. He started giving an impression that the girl was under a spell of evil spirits and they were bringing her bad luck,” said the officer.

The officer added that he convinced the girl to come with him. “On Friday, he left Mumbai and came to Delhi. The girl’s family members who stay in Thane’s Kadawa police station area lodged an FIR following which a Mumbai police team started chasing Mohammed on the basis of the location of his mobile phone,” said the officer.

Mohammed first brought the girl to Ajmer and then to Nagaur. “However, Mumbai police had already alerted us. When Mohammed got down at the local bus stand with the girl, he was surrounded and arrested,” said the officer.

The police team left for Mumbai with the girl and the accused man. “The police are trying to find out why Mohammed brought the girl to Nagaur and what was his real intentions. A case of kidnapping is lodged against him,” said the officer.