Self-styled godmen held for cheating family with fake ‘treasury’ ritual in Sircilla

Rajanna-Sircilla police arrested a gang of self-styled godmen who cheated a family in Nizamabad village of Konaraopet mandal by promising to unearth a secret treasury. The fraud came to light when the main accused stopped responding to calls, prompting the victim to lodge a complaint.

Rajanna-Sircilla: Self-styled godmen cheated a family by promising to unearth a secret treasury in their home, an incident that occurred two months ago in Nizamabad village of Konaraopet mandal.

Based on a complaint lodged by the victim, police registered a case and arrested the accused, recovering Rs 3 lakh from them. Chandurthi CI G Venkateshwarlu produced the accused before the media on Wednesday.

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According to police, Mekala Naresh from Peddur approached the victim, Daggu Venu, in the second week of September. Disguised as a swamy, Naresh told Venu that the family was unable to have children because sorcery had been performed against them. He collected Rs 3,000 by tying an amulet to Venu.

Seeking to extract more money, Naresh claimed that a secret treasury lay buried beneath their house and took Rs 50,000 on the pretext of unearthing it by performing pujas along with his associates.

Later, Naresh, along with Kadavancha Prasad of Peddur and Sadula Devender of Chandrampeta in Sircilla, went to Venu’s house at night. Pretending to conduct pujas, they dug a pit and buried a small idol in it. Showing the idol to the family, they claimed it was not possible to unearth the treasury because there was ‘Nagabandanam’ in the house.

They warned that continuing to dig could lead to loss of life and said a ‘Kshudra Pooja’ with an Aghora was mandatory. Otherwise, the family would die, they threatened, and collected Rs 3.40 lakh from them.

Four days later, as part of their plan, they made one Sadula Rajesham dress as an Aghora and visit the house. They also took a snake with its fangs removed. While pretending to perform the ritual, they dropped the snake into the pit and enacted a drama that Devender had been bitten.

Devender pretended to vomit blood. The gang then threatened the family with legal action if Devender died and collected an additional Rs 15,000 to take him to hospital. Altogether, they collected Rs 4.8 lakh from Venu.

It was when Naresh stopped responding to multiple phone calls that Venu realised he was cheated and then approached the Konaraopet police.