Pune: A city-based petrol pump owner was duped of Rs 1.75 crore by a Madhya Pradesh-based godman. The accused has been identified as Vijay Guru alias Ashoknath alias Shaukeen, a resident of Badnawar in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
Guru had assured Rakesh Rana, a resident of Sangvi, that he would conduct a tantric puja and shower Rana with Rs 300 crore. The guru initially demanded Rs 5.50 lakh to perform the puja. According to the Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force, with whom Rana has registered a complaint, he was first introduced to the tantric in March 2017 by his friend, identified as Raju.
Rana has a petrol pump at Vadgaon Maval and was told by his friend that Guru was a tantric and was blessed with divine powers. He told Rana that Guru can arrange a shower of money. He fixed a meeting between Rana and guru at Shirpur. The guru was accompanied by Pintu Gupta.
The guru told Rana that he would perform the money shower provided Rana gives him Rs 5.50 lakh. After being lured by Guru, in February 2018, Rana went to meet him at Badnawar. The guru took him along to Ujjain, where he met Aftab, who gave Rana some herbs to conduct the puja.
The police said that after visiting Ujjain, the guru took Rana to Roopkheda forest in Badnawar to conduct the puja. He made him sit there on the ground and garlanded him. Later, two men wearing black clothes came there with horrifying make-up. The guru told Rana that the two were spirits and would shower him with money. But both of them started making horrifying voices. The guru then told Rana that the spirits were angry and to pacify them, he had to arrange for more money.
When contacted, Rana said, “The guru told me that the angry spirits would bring bad luck to me. Then, over a period of two months, he took Rs 1.75 crore from me. I registered a complaint with the MP police. If they fail to catch the accused, I will file a complaint with the Pune police.”
Rana had taken a loan from his friends to arrange the money for guru. After handing over the money to guru, he gave a box to Rana and told him to open it after a few days in order to receive Rs 300 crore. However, after 15 days, when Rana opened the box, it was empty.
Arun Mishra, Superintendent of Police, MPSTF, said, “We have been approached by the complainant and have launched an investigation into the matter. We will arrest the fraudster soon.”