The Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) recently helped nab five con artists from Chakan and Khed areas for allegedly duping people under the pretext of miracle cures.

The suspects were arrested by the police under the Drugs and Magic Remedies. (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. Being an industrial area, Chakan sees a lot of blue collared workers who easily fall prey to such cons.

Dr Narendra Dabholkar, founder-president of MANS, said, “There are many people who fall prey to such cons, but very few approach the police. The current Act is not very strong and the offenders serve only six months to 3 years in prison. We appeal to the citizens to be part of the campaign for the anti-superstition bill. People have a lot dreams and they fall prey to such con artists who claim to have supernatural powers. These are all tactics of making easy money. We think that the bill will create awareness in society about this problem.”

Milind Deshmukh, chief secretary of MANS, said, “In most cases, even the police are not aware of the laws and Acts to deal with these issues. They usually file these cases under cheating. There is a lack of awareness among people as well as the police machinery.” He also said that the number of victims were more from urban areas than rural areas.

‘Godman’ in jail for duping female lawyer of Rs53,000In a shocking incident, a female lawyer from the city found herself duped of Rs53,000 as she unwittingly fell into the trap of a self-proclaimed ‘godman’.

The lawyer had approached the godman after reading an advertisement in a city-based English daily and had consulted him for her sleep disorder.

The incident came to light on Saturday when Devyani Kadam (29) (name changed on request), a resident of Karvenagar, lodged a complaint with the Khadak police against Guruji Mukhopadhyay alias Sumant Mukherjee (50) and his wife Seema (43) under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) comprising breach of trust and cheating. The duo has also been charged under the Drugs and Magic Remedies. (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.

Devyani was living in Pune for the last five years to pursue further studies. High drama was witnessed when Mukherjee was arrested. He started making calls to senior police officers and politicians, but was taken away by the police.

Talking to DNA, Devyani said, “I used to have nightmares and suffered from sleeplessness. I read an advertisement by Mukherjee in an English daily on May 4 this year. He told me that all these problems were happening because someone was using black magic against me. To deal with this issue, he asked for Rs53,000 from me to get me Rudraksha from Nepal.”

She added, “Later, I started visiting their house and they asked me to come along with them to Haridwar and bathe in Ganga, but I refused. After they came back from Haridwar, I enquired about my Rudraksha but he demanded another Rs12,000 for postal charges. Meanwhile, he asked me to join his healing sessions.

“While attending those sessions, I witnessed that he played Bollywood music during the process and his pet dogs soiled the mattress he used for healing. Once I kept my eye open during the healing process and discovered that he checked women’s bags. While interacting with another follower, whose husband is missing for over 30 years, I found out that Mukherjee had taken around 59,000 from her claiming that her husband will come back to her if she wears an amulet. I got in touch with the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti and lodged a complaint against him.”

Inspector Rajendra Kadam, in charge of Khadak police station, said, “We urge citizens to approach us, if they came across similar incidents. We can be contacted on 24452095.”