PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE / Dehradun
The Selaqui police apprehended a self-styled priest for allegedly cheating a woman of gold jewellery by exploiting her fear of black magic and misfortune. Police recovered a 150-gramme gold bar, allegedly made by melting part of the stolen jewellery and Rs five lakh in cash believed to have been earned by selling some of the stolen ornaments, police said.
The accused has been identified as Rahul Thapa, a resident of Telpura Attock Farm in Selaqui. The Dehradun senior superintendent of police Pramendra Dobal said that the accused duped a woman of about 65 tolas of gold jewellery- valued at about Rs one crore- by convincing her that her family was under the influence of evil forces. “He used superstition and purported occult practices to gain the trust of people and extort money in the name of religious rituals,” Dobal said.
He said he had duped about half a dozen persons so far, but the amounts involved were not very large. Due to their blind faith in the fraud, the victims did not file complaints. However, after this case came to light, police started receiving other complaints against the accused. The arrest came following the complaint filed by Oshin Gurung, who told police that Thapa had visited her home a few months ago and claimed that some harmful ritual had been performed against her family. He had allegedly asked her to organise a special ritual to remove the threat. During the ritual, he asked her and her mother to place all their jewellery in a box along with Pooja items. He then allegedly removed the jewellery while they were away performing another ritual. Dobal said that the accused would secretly throw bundles containing items linked to black magic outside the homes of wealthy followers and later convince them that they were facing danger. He would then charge them large amounts of money for rituals. “Our team is making efforts to recover the remaining jewellery and investigate whether the accused cheated other people using the same method,” Dobal added.
