Police in the Trenggalek regency of East Java arrested a man, identified as SB, for allegedly deceiving over one hundred people into engaging in a bizarre ritual involving staining their bodies with ink in order to fulfill his own sexual desires.

On Tuesday, the Trenggalek Police held a press conference with the perpetrator, who was masked to protect his identity before the media but was revealed to be a retired and widowed civil servant who had been engaging in the difficult-to-comprehend deception for several years.

In a statement released on the official Trenggalek Police website covering the press conference, SB’s supposed modus operandi for tricking his victims was described. Allegedly he would send messages to his targets, claiming to be a government official. He would then ask them to smear their bodies with printer ink and rub themselves with a pan scrubbing brush.

No, we’re not sure why anybody would follow the commands of a supposed public official asking for such an insane request, but police said that SB was able to convinced some of his victims, who were mostly people who worked for the government, by telling them that he was a representative of a candidate for the governor of East Java and that the ink and brush ritual would somehow improve their candidate’s chances at winning in the election (and that they would get a promotion should that candidate win).

Not only did SB allegedly convince many of his victims to go through with the ink bath, police say he even got some to get tattoos on their face.

(Seriously, we’re just translating what the police wrote in the official press release!)

“In 2018, there were 3 people, then in 2016 there were two civil servants who got permanent tattoos on their faces” Trenggalek Police Chief Didit Bambang Wibowo Saputra said, as quoted in release.

Didit said that the results of their investigation had found that at least 174 people had become victims of SB’s deception, including school principals, teachers, civil servants and members of the military.

Regarding the motive behind the crime, Didit said SB’s deceptions were allegedly done for his own sexual gratification. Although he said SB never actually met any of his victims in person (his primary method of communication was SMS) he received sexual satisfaction simply by picturing his victims following through on his orders.

Didit implied that SB used psychological tactics to instill pressure and fear into his victims, but did not elaborate exactly on what methods he used to do so.

SB was finally found out by the police after one of his targets finally thought his requests were bizarre enough to report them to the police.

At the press conference, police showed off evidence of SB’s crimes, including SMS screenshots, a mobile phone, clothing, bed sheets and pillows belonging to the suspect.

Police said that SB would be charged with violating the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE) for committing fraud over the phone and said he could face up to 4 years in jail and a maximum fine of IDR 750 million (USD 52,000).

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