Cuttack: Commissionerate Police arrested Monday a fake godman for allegedly duping a childless couple of nearly Rs 4,00,000. The accused identified as Siddheswar Samantray, a resident of Dharmasala in Jajpur district, had told the couple that they would be blessed with a kid, if they listen to his advice and pay him accordingly. Personnel from the Badambadi police station arrested Siddheswar following a complaint lodged by victim Sangram Das here.
Police said that Sangram and his wife Subhashree Subhasmita Nayak had approached Siddheswar as they wanted to have a baby. However, Siddheswar duped the couple of Rs 3,90,000 while promising them that a ‘miracle’ would soon happen in their lives.
“We were having certain problems and my wife was facing complications while conceiving,” Sangram said Monday. “A friend of mine introduced me to Siddheswar. He took a lot of money on the pretext of conducting rituals at our home and said that doing those would help my wife conceiving. We believed him and he duped us of Rs 3.90 lakh in the last 8-9 months,” Sangram added.
Sangram also stated that Siddheswar had provided herbal medicines to the couple. However, they fell sick after consuming the medicines. “He tried to scare us by stating that he is a powerful tantric. But we investigated and found that he was a fake godman. Then I lodged a complaint with the police,” Sangram informed.
Police meanwhile said that many others have fallen prey to Siddheswar. They are now trying to find out how many others have been duped by Siddheswar.
