CUTTACK: A 27-year-old black magic practitioner who charged Rs 62 lakh from a woman to drive away ‘evil spirit’ from her home was arrested by Cuttack Police on Friday.
Maulana Kaifi Khan, a resident of Kesharpur, was arrested based on complaint was filed by a Ranihat resident. He was found to have run up huge wealth that included two cars, 70 mobile phones and about 20 expensive watches.
On the pretext of taking care of the ‘evil spirits’, he had collected over `62 lakh from the woman since September last year, Cuttack DCP Pinak Mishra said. The complainant and her family members - especially her elderly ailing mother - apparently felt the presence of a negative energy in their house due to which they could not sleep in peace. The family performed pujas and other rituals to overcome the issue. Later, the woman came to know of Khan from her driver Sk Israil and contacted him.
Khan visited their house and told the family after inspection that there indeed was negative energy in form of a spirit which was causing the problems. He also said there were some objects underneath a small lane adjacent to the house which have a connection with the evil spirit and need to be dug out.
Family pays a black magician Rs 62 lakh to drive away ‘evil spirit’
The occult practitioner even cautioned the woman that if the evil spirit and the objects were not removed, someone in the family might die. To carry out the task, he demanded Rs 15 lakh from the complainant and the victim transferred the amount from her Canara Bank account to Khan’s SBI account. However, Khan began to demand more money and she paid him a total of Rs 62 lakh to him by taking 17 gold loans from Muthoot Finance, Mishra informed.
Khan even had the family dig the floor of their house where they found a small image of Lord Buddha, a brass pot, brass idols of Lord Radha Krishna, diamond-like items and brass bricks. The 27-year-old told the family that the stones were diamonds and the metals gold.
However, once the victim came to know that the articles made of stone and metals had no value, she filed an FIR with the police. Khan who was arrested confessed to duping the woman of `62 lakh. Police seized 70 mobile phones, 20 expensive wristwatches, Rs 2.76 lakh in cash, two cars (Hyundai Verna and Maruti Suzuki Brezza), brass idols, a Royal Enfield Bullet apart from bank passbook, cheque book, insurance policies and bonds from his possession. The accused admitted to having duped other using the same method.