Police arrest two babas in separate incidents for duping women.
What are the odds of two men, not connected to each other, following the same modus operandi of posing as spiritual leaders and duping women? As it turns out, quite less.
The Kandivli police and the Sakinaka police, in two separate cases, arrested a 24-year-old and a 51-year-old, respectively, for duping several women of their gold ornaments by promising to help them get rid of their problems. While the 24-year-old, identified as Bajrang Bhand, who claimed to be an astrologer, was arrested on October 27, the other, identified as Mushtaq Batliwala alias Sayed Baba, who posed as a self-styled godman, was arrested on Friday.
The Kandivli police said Bhand would visit those houses in Laljipada where he knew the women would be alone. The Ambernath resident would dress up as a pir baba and go from door to door, offering housewives to read their future. On the pretext of getting rid of the problems in their future, he would ask them to keep their jewellery in a mound of rice. He would pretend to blow air into the mound, put the rice in a packet, while expertly removing the ornaments, and instruct the women to open it only after two days.
So far, the police have solved two cases against Bhand and recovered 40 grams of gold ornaments.
In the other case, according to the Sakinaka police, Batliwala’s modus operandi was exactly the same, except he claimed to have powers to solve problems in the present.
The police said the Bhiwandi resident would tell the women to remove their jewellery, saying that was what was bringing them bad luck. He would pretend to tie it up in a piece of cloth and meditate but would actually remove the ornaments and put something else in their place, said an officer.
Batliwala has also allegedly duped several people posing as an ATS officer. He would stop motorists, saying there had been a crime a few metres ahead. He would ask them to hand over their valuables to him, saying he will keep them safe and return everything to them shortly.
The police are in the process of finding out the amount he has duped people of and appealed to citizens to come forward if they have been cheated by him.
How the two men operated
Bajrang Bhand would ask the women to keep their jewellery in a mound of rice, pretend to blow air into it, put the rice in a packet, while expertly removing the ornaments, and instruct the women to open it only after two days. Mushtaq Batliwala alias Sayed Baba would tell the women to remove their jewellery, saying it was bringing them bad luck, pretend to tie it up in a piece of cloth and meditate but would actually remove the ornaments and put something else in their place.
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