Cuttack: A day after a self-styled ‘tantrik’ was arrested for allegedly duping a woman of Rs 62 lakh on the plea of helping her find hidden treasure in Odisha’s Cuttack, police slapped another case of cheating against him on Saturday.
The fresh case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by a man from Bhadrak accusing Kaifi Khan of duping him of over Rs 5 lakh on the promise of finding gold bricks from the backyard of his house.
The complainant said he had visited Cuttack’s Kesharpur in connection with a marriage proposal of his daughter when he met Kaifi. After hearing about certain problems being faced by the complainant, the self-styled godman promised to set everything right after a visit to his house.
The tantrik claimed that gold bricks are buried in the backyard of the complainant’s house and asked me to pay him Rs 5 lakh for performing certain rituals and take the bricks out. Though the complainant paid the amout, nothing happened. The accused disappeared and never showed up after receiving the money, the complainant alleged.
Stating that Kaifi is suspected to be involved in many cheating cases, Cuttack DCP Pinak Mishra said this is only the second complaint received against him by the police.
Police have evidence of payments that the victim has made to the accused and another case has been registered against him. Kaifi will be taken on remand for interrogation to get information about people who helped him in the crime. Police will nab all of them after the investigation, he said.
Kaifi is already in police custody after the Mangalabag police arrested him on Friday on charges of duping a 39-year-old woman from Ranihat area of Rs 62 lakh on the plea of helping her find hidden treasure.
As per the complaint, the woman came to know Kaifi through her driver. As her mother was frequently falling ill, she contacted Kaifi to find the way for her recovery.
The so called tantrik visited the woman’s house and told her that there was an evil spirit in the house. He assured her of warding off the spirit. At the same time, he told her that there was hidden treasure buried somewhere in the house.
On the plea of performing some tantrik works with his supernatural power to find the treasure, Kaifi took money from the woman. During the last one year, he took Rs 62 lakh from the woman in phases.
The ‘tantrik’ had given some stones claiming those to be gold and diamond to the woman. Later, when she took those to a jeweller, she could know that those were fake stones. Realising that she had been duped by Kaifi, she filed a complaint at Mangalabag police station and Kaifi was nabbed.
