Woman duped of Rs 72 lakh on pretext of evicting demons

A 52-year-old woman from Malad was duped to the tune of Rs 72 lakh by three fraudsters on the pretext of evicting demons from her house. The alleged con was going on from over five years, when the woman finally emptied her bank account she approached the police.

According to the police, the woman and her family are from well to do family from Santosh Nagar in Malad, in 2015 the woman while searching her horoscope online, she came in contact with the accused who promised prosparity in her life. The woman was apparently not happy in her life and wanted betterment. According to the police, the accused so far identified as Ashutosh, Vikas and Sunita Bist claimed that her house was hounted and lured her into trap. On the pretext of evicting demons the accused used to consult her over the phone and on took online sessions of her and charges thousands of Rupees for every consultation session.

The alleged cheating was continued for almost five years and not a single time accused visited her, each time they conducted her session online and promises prosparity and accepts payments online. Sometimes the accused also threatened her that if she did not followed them then her life would became more chaotic and continued to dupe her. According to the police, till last year the woman continued to pay them and paid them total of Rs 72 lakh so far. She only stop when she almost emptied her bank account, said police.

"Following her complaint we have registered an offence under the IPC sections of cheating by personation (419) and cheating (420) along with section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology act, and our investigation is underway" said Dharnendra Kamble, senior inspector of Dindoshi police station.