CUTTACK: In a bizarre incident, a woman was allegedly hypnotised and robbed of her gold ornaments at a busy locality near Brundaban cinema hall in the city on Wednesday.
Pushpalata Das (55) of Bajrakabati Road was on her way to buy vegetables near the cinema hall when two unidentified miscreants approached her for drinking water at around 10.30 am. The miscreants spoke in Hindi.
Pushpalata, affable and religious in nature, bought water from a nearby shop and handed over to the miscreants who after drinking it blew into her eyes making her stand still on the spot. The miscreants then told Pushpalata that Goddess was annoyed with her and asked her to remove all her gold ornaments, keep it in her purse while chanting the Goddess’ name to get her blessings. Pushpalata obliged by removing her necklace, ring, a pair of earrings and bangles weighing around 30 gram and kept them in her purse which had Rs 150 in cash.
The miscreants then asked her to hand over the purse and her mobile phone to them and walk 51 feet chanting the Goddess’ name, the complainant said.
Pushpalata said she gave the purse and mobile phone and walked 51 feet towards the cinema hall chanting the Goddess’ name but when she turned back, the miscreants had fled the spot. The victim then lost consciousness.
Later locals informed her family who then rescued her from the spot. Pushpalata filed an FIR with Purighat police station. “We have registered the FIR and started investigating the incident by verifying the CCTV footage of the locality,” said Purighat IIC Jatindra Sethi.
Police said the case appeared to be an act of emotional blackmailing. “We are trying to nab the miscreants as soon as possible”, said a senior police officer while ruling out hypnotism.