Self-proclaimed spiritual leaders or godmen will soon be under the police scanner.

The Social Service Branch of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, as part of the enforcement of the Anti-Black Magic Bill, 2013, has been instructed to start gathering data about such people and create a comprehensive database.

The Anti-Black Magic Bill was passed in Maharashtra in December 2013, four months after the murder of activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was strongly opposed to blind faith and superstitious practices, and pushed hard for the Act to be passed in his lifetime. Dabholkar was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pune in August 2013.

Soon after the Bill was passed, the Maharashtra Police started training its personnel in the enforcement of the Bill’s provisions, besides planning various other initiatives. Mumbai Crime Branch officers said that one such initiative in Mumbai was to keep a tab on self-styled godmen.

“The SSB has been instructed to obtain and maintain information about spiritual leaders in the city, including their identities, followers, their activities. This information will be collected in collaboration with the police stations in the city,” said DCP (Detection) Dhanajay Kulkarni.

Sources said till now, there had been no previous mechanism to keep a tab on such figures. The passing of the Bill, the police said, gave a basis to start the initiative.

“The Article 5 of the Bill states that any person who incites fear of any kind of loss or damage, whether financial or of any other nature, by claiming to possess divine powers, can be prosecuted under the provisions of the Bill. If any person is found to be coercing people to obey him, saying that disobedience could result in negative consequences, the police not only have the power to take action against such a person, but are also responsible for taking such action,” said a Crime Branch officer who is associated with the training process.

The initiative comes at a time when Sukhvinder Kaur alias Radhe Maa is in the eye of the storm, after a 32-year-old woman from Kandivali accused her of instigating her husband and her in-laws of demanding dowry from her. She alleged she was assaulted and made to do menial tasks in Radhe Maa’s ashram. The Kandivali police are currently investigating the case.

gautam.mengle@expressindia.com

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