Mumbai: The city crime branch on Thursday arrested a 45-year-old ‘tantrik’ for duping people in the name of black magic. The tantrik, identified as Ashok Lakhan Gupta, used to perform black magic on the behest of Nishwitkumar Shetty, 36, who was arrested by the crime branch unit 9 on Monday. The duo used to dupe people by claiming they will shower money on them and make them super rich.
Gupta, who was allegedly a 50 per cent partner in the cheating, fled from his Dharavi home after learning about Shetty’s arrest. However, he was arrested from Kudus in Palghar.
According to the crime branch officer, Shetty used to run a ponzi scheme. He lured people by claiming that he could summon a aatma (spirit) by performing black magic on Aamavasya (new Moon day). He claimed that the spirit will rain money and multiply their money by 50 times.
Shetty, a commerce graduate, was working in Dubai and returned to India in 2008. In India, he lost his savings in a similar fraud. After losing money, he decided to start his own scheme. Since Shetty knew that such schemes required a pandit, he hired Gupta and began to dupe people.
The duo duped a realty agent of Rs 1.12 crore over a year by promising to multiply his money. Shetty was arrested after crime branch unit 9 received a tip-off about him.
During his house search, police found a room full of children’s currency stuck on its walls.
