It was not the astrologer’s day!
Mangaluru: It was certainly not the day of the astrologer as Pandit Krishna Sharma found out! Or was it Pandit Vidya Shankar as the pamphlet said! Or are both pseudonyms to cheat the gullible? These are the questions to the Pandeshwar Police who have now arrested a person under sections for cheating, impersonation and various other acts pertaining to medical practice. The story appears to much deeper than what is seems to be.
On the 3rd of January I had received a pamphlet inserted into my daily newspaper, The Hindu purportedly by a Pandit Vidya Shankar who claimed to be South India’s most popular and highly experience(sic) mantrik astrologer. He promised a cure for sexual diseases, sterility, to ‘soften’ enemies, collect outstanding amounts and a variety of such. In fact, the said pamphlet appears to be a very panacea for all problems that human beings can ever face in their lives! Intrigued by these I called the number and the voice at the other end said that he was in Udupi but was coming to Mangalore on 8th of January. When searched on true caller it was an Airtel number registered in the name of Mo Dullicpp which obviously appears to be a false name. He said that he would call me when he came to Mangalore. When I kept on asking him as to when he would come he said he was coming on 5th January and would inform me when he should come. So, to set up a sting for him, I asked Pramila a DYFI activist to pose as my daughter and she was into the loop. After a number of calls during which he said he was busy with a Puja and a variety of such alibis he gave us an appointment in the evening and asked us to come at 4:00 pm. So, we went there as a father-daughter duo, the daughter being married for eight years and sent home as she could not conceive. When we met the south India famous mantrik astrologer in his office at Attavar it turned out that it was not he who was in the office but another one of the famous one’s of South India- Pandit Sri Ramakrishna Sharma – so to us it was very clear that there is more than one such. However, this man assured us that he could solve our problems and started taking my ‘daughter’s case history promising her quick results. He also claimed to have a mantra for sterility. He also promised to perform Pujas for the same purpose. It was obvious that he had absolutely no ‘powers’ of any sort because he could not find out that we both were lying through our teeth and the whole thing was being recorded! He also demanded a sum of Rs 11,300 and asked for an advance. I told him that I had only a 2000 k note but would like to ask my wife before handing over and went out to call the police! Then I entered his room and my ‘daughter’ was made to hand the note over to him by placing it under the photos of the myriad of gods placed by his side.
Then it was time for the revelation we told him that he was a fool and a cheat. It was obvious that he was one because when I had told him that my name was Narendra he asked whether it was Narendra Nayak, I said it was not Nayak but Poojary and he apparently believed it! The police have arrested him for various sections of the law for impersonation and cheating.
But how about the larger ramifications of this racket? There seems to be a gang of thugs operating this way. In fact, in the office of the arrested man, there were two persons sitting outside keeping a watch over the proceedings while there was a third one keeping a lookout for any raids. The tragedy of the whole issue is that there were two women inside when we went for the consultation and when ours was going on there were two others waiting outside who disappeared when the police came in. It was clear that he had cheated the apparently mother- daughter duo who had gone before us of Rs 8000 as there was a chit to that amount. There was another such duo sitting outside to consult him after us but ran away when the police came in! When we exposed him he was trying to frantically call someone telling them in Marathi to come quickly and arrange for a lawyer too.
On the next day when we went to the building where he was running the racket and spoke to the people there. We were told that early in the morning a gang of four people had come to take care of his bail and other things. We came to know that he is in rented premises which was given actually for residential use which he converted into his place of business in which he was cheating the gullible, particularly women who had problems. He would tell them that the problems would be solved and collect amounts from them. We met a lady from a village nearby who had paid him Rs 30,000 for solving her problems but when we told her to complain to the police about it, she was hesitant, probably because she had paid the amount without the knowledge of her family. The lout had not spared the woman who was sweeping the building. It seems that her husband had deserted her and he had collected Rs 50,000 for her saying that he will reunite them. From enquiries, we made it was clear that it was women whom he was exploiting. We were also told that his modus operandi was to collect their horoscope and blackmail them into paying for getting it back! The neighbours were very angry at the cheating this man and his gang was doing and told us that hey tried to warn those who were going to him. But, they also said that he and his gang of thugs would keep a close watch on all people who came to them- they would not be allowed to speak to others around! The landlord of the rented premises where he was conducting his business told us that he would evict him immediately.
It is up to the Mangalore Police to lodge further investigations into this and expose the whole racket involving gangs, a set up to dupe gullible customers and to hide their tracks by using a number of cell phones. We do hope that the gullible public will become aware of these rackets too. But, as the famous showman P T Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute and we have our share of wolves waiting for such! There should be a law to curb such unscrupulous people who exploit gullible believers.
