Gujarat conman duped massacre victims

Self-styled godman Ashok Jadeja, who was arrested last week in Ahmedabad for cheating hundreds of gullible disciples of crores of rupees on the promise of doubling money, did not even spare victims of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The kin of most of the 29 victims of the July 13, 2002, massacre at Rajiv Nagar Slum, Jammu, had invested the Rs1 lakh each they received as ex-gratia from the government with Jadeja in the hope of making a quick buck.

As things stand now, they all tend to lose the money.

The world of 45-year-old Suresh Kumar came crashing down when he learnt that Jadeja had been arrested for fraud. Suresh, too, had invested the Rs1 lakh he received after his father Kundan was gunned down in the July 13 strike.

“I’m ruined. I have lost my hard-earned money to this godman,” Kumar said.

Maya Devi, who lost mother Sita and sister Geeta in the massacre, paid a chunk of her ex-gratia to the “godman”, who gobbled it all up.

Around 40 poor families, mostly daily-wage workers in Jammu, have lost their life savings to Jadeja. They had handed over the money to him on a visit to Ahmedabad.
The issue has snowballed into a major controversy, with ruling Congress MLAs stepping up pressure to probe the matter and help victims.

“He has duped poor people of over Rs1 crore in Jammu alone. Since most handed over the money in Ahmedabad, police are finding it difficult to trace its source. But we are trying to help the victims,” Raman Bhalla, Congress MLA from Gandhi Nagar, Jammu,  said.

IG (Jammu range) K Rajendra Kumar said, “We will thoroughly investigate the matter. We are trying to contact Ahmedabad Police and will try to bring Jadeja to Jammu for questioning.”