BENGALURU: Vijaynagar police have arrested a self-proclaimed astrologer on charges of ‘repeatedly raping’ a 42-year-old woman after promising to cure her son’s epilepsy.
A senior police officer on Monday said the housewife had stated in her complaint filed on May 15 that Prasanna Kumar (31) of Kamala Nagar had visited her house to sell incense sticks. Kumar claimed that he worked for an NGO for the visually impaired, the officer said.
He befriended her and learnt that her one-year-old son was epileptic. “He told her that he was an astrologer and could cure her son,” the police officer added.
During the course of their friendship, he made her smoke an intoxicant and when she fell unconscious, he took nude pictures of her. He told her that he found some problem with her body and the remedy needs money. He convinced her to have sex. He repeatedly raped her and blackmailed her threatening to show the pictures to her husband. Scared, the woman gave him her husbands’ credit cards. The woman later narrated the incident to her husband, police said.
Police seized 350gm of gold and `14 lakh from him. He had also bought some home appliances using the credit cards.