Hyderabad: A thief, posing as a godman, stole Rs 1.33 crore cash from the house of Lifestyle building owner, sedating the victim and his family members after performing a puja at their house at Banjara Hills on Wednesday.

The incident happened at businessman Madhusudhan Reddy's house at MLA Colony in Banjara Hills. Reddy, a realtor, is the owner of Lifestyle building at Begumpet.

On Wednesday morning, a godman reportedly from Karnataka went to Reddy's house to perform a special puja. Reddy, his wife and their son participated in the puja, which was done for the prosperity of their business. An amount of Rs 1.33 crore in cash was used for the purpose.

At 4 pm, while concluding the ritual, the god man made the victim and his family members eat parasadam (paramannam) laced with sedative. A little while after consuming the prasadam, Reddy and his family members fell unconscious. The godman then stole the entire cash and escaped.

The puja was performed on the first floor of the duplex house, while the workers were on the ground floor. Reddy's son, who regained consciousness quickly, went to the ground floor and with the help of the employees shifted his parents to Apollo Hospital for treatment.

"The condition of the victims is out of danger," deputy commissioner of police (DCP), West Zone, A Venkateswara Rao, said. During the preliminary probe, police analysed the CCTV camera footage at the house and found that the 30-year-old godman came with another man to the house.

Police also found out that Madhusudhan Reddy had booked a room for the godman at Ohri's hotel at Banjara Hills on Tuesday. When Police raided the hotel room and recovered the driving licence of one Shiva from Karnataka. Cops suspect that Shiva was the one posing as the godman.

"Madhusudhan Reddy is still not completely fit to talk. We are waiting for him to fully recover to give some details about how he came in contact with the fraudsters," assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Banjara Hills, U Uday Kumar Reddy said.



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