A spiritual healer, her husband, and her guru were arrested in Pune for allegedly defrauding an IT engineer of Rs13 crore (AI image)
PUNE: A woman spiritual healer, her husband and her guru were arrested on Friday on charges of cheating an IT engineer of Rs 13 crore on the pretext of curing his daughters, suffering from ailments from birth.The Pune police took the trio into custody from Nashik after the Kothrud police late on Thursday night registered a case under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices, and Black Magic Act, and sections 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318 (cheating) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the woman, who claimed to possess spiritual powers, her guru, and three others, including her husband.The engineer (57) sold off his properties in the UK and in Pune, and exhausted all savings, including PF, without achieving the desired result. He then lodged a complaint with the police.Deputy commissioner of police (EOW) Vivek Masal told TOI that the accused, Vedika Pandharpurkar (41), her husband Kunal (45), both residents of Mahatma Society in Kothrud, and the woman’s guru, Deepak Khadke (65) of Nashik, were produced before a special court on Friday. “They have been remanded in police custody until November 14,” Masal said.The techie worked in London for over 10 years before shifting to Pune in 2010 in the hope of getting a cure for his daughters. One of his daughters (30) is a specially abled child. The other daughter (16) has been suffering from a severe health condition.The IT engineer came in contact with Khadke in 2018. He would regularly visit the house of his disciple — Vedika — to hold his “Darbar”. Khadke told the engineer that Vedika had spiritual power and it could help cure the ailments of his daughters.According to the engineer, Devika, her husband and Khadke misled him and his wife (57) into believing that their daughters were suffering because there was a “dosh” (ill-effect) in their properties. They were advised to sell off their properties and not keep money in their bank accounts. They were told to deposit their money into the account held by Devika.The couple followed the instructions for a period of time without any results. The engineer sold his house in England, two flats in Pune and a farm in Konkan, and gave the money to Devika.“Our client is now working for a private firm as a consultant. He hardly has money for the treatment of his daughters. We will continue with our fight until we recover the money from them,” the IT engineer’s lawyer, Vijaysinh Thombre, told TOI.Demanding police custody of the trio, the police told the court that they duped the victim of Rs13.2 crore under the pretext of curing his daughters. They even told him not to pay his specially abled daughter’s insurance premium, due to which she would not get its benefits. “We will also probe where this money was invested by the accused,” the police said, adding that they wanted to check if any other people were duped.
