Inter-state gang of fraudsters busted, three held

Srinagar, Nov 12: Police on Monday said that it has busted an inter-state gang of fraudsters by arresting three persons involved in defrauding the innocent public of Udhampur and its surrounding areas on the pretext of being a “Tantrik” who can cure the life-consuming terminal diseases with his magic power.
Giving details, Rayees Mohammad Bhat, SSP Udhampur said that based on some reliable information, police took the contingency of the fraud and a Case FIR No. 555/2018 U/S 420/406/380 RPC was registered in Police Station Udhampur.
During the course of the investigation, police succeeded in identifying the victims of these fraudsters who were motivated to assist the police to nab these fraudsters. Accordingly, a special police team led by Inspr. Sanjeev Chib, SHO PS Udhampur assisted by SI Vishavpartap Singh under the supervision of Zahid Saif Wani, Dy.SP Hqrs. Udhampur was constituted and a massive hunt was launched to nab these fraudsters by way of utilizing human and technical intelligence, SSP said.
“The raids have been conducted in various suspected locations and ultimately the police team arrested the accused gang of fraudsters red handed and subsequently all the 03 fraudsters were arrested and on their disclosure, cash recovery to the tune about 12 Lacs and stolen jewellery worth Rs. 60 thousand were recovered,” SSP said.
Modus operandi of these fraudsters was that they used to gain entry in a house on the pretext of being a “Tantrik” who can cure various diseases especially life consuming terminal diseases with their magic power and soon after gaining the entry in a house in this way, the gang led by Maan Singh son of Nagina Singh of Darhar, Tehsil Padrona, District Gorakhpur, Utter Pradesh and his associates namely Gouri Devi wife of Bala Deep of Jhansi, MP, Sachwinder Singh son of Charan Singh, Wamini, Gurdaspur, Punjab used to befool the house owners with the suspicion of availability of some hidden treasure/wealth etc. which they can trace after performing some special kind of rituals/pooja secretly, the officer said.
Accordingly, they used to collect money from the house owners for being used for pooja purpose so that the hidden wealth could be extracted and shifted in the household utensils by way of rituals. Besides, Maan Singh used to utilize many other ways which included fasting, performing rituals along with family members and sometimes alone inside the housekeeping all the family members out of the house etc. thereby committing thefts with a free hand from these houses, the officer said.
Moreover, Maan Singh used to warn the family members not to disclose about the treasure/hidden wealth their rituals/pooja to anyone during 41days of Pooja otherwise the whole exercise will go in vain and would be having adverse effects on the family.
This way, the fraudsters cheated 03 families of district Udhampur besides committing thefts to the tune of about 18 Lacs approx. As of now, cash recovery of 12.03 Lacs and stolen jewellery worth Rs. 60 thousand has been made besides freezing of their bank account having the balance to the tune of Rs. 4 Lac. Further investigation of the case is going on, the officer added.