Mumbai Crime: 'Godman' held for duping businessman of Rs 3.77 crore

A 40-year-old self-styled godman, who allegedly duped a south-Mumbai based diamond merchant of Rs 3.77 crore, has been nabbed by the police. The businessman was conned of the amount by the ‘baba', on the pretext that he would arrange a loan of Rs 40 crore for the victim to overcome his business losses.

The Tardeo police have detained the accused from Uttar Pradesh and are bringing him to Mumbai. Police have succeeded in recovering over 90 per cent of the cash.

According to cops, Virendranand Bramachari alias Krishna Singh, claims to be a spiritual-cum-ayurvedic Baba. Singh would also pretend that he has huge number of followers.

Singh has been nabbed on the complaint of the diamond merchant. According to police, Singh originally hails from the Faizabad region of UP and had spent some years in Jammu to get spiritual knowledge. He also lived in Mumbai's Vile Parle area, serving as a priest of a temple for some years, before finally moving to Surat, Gujarat, where he reportedly has huge number of followers.

Police added that the complainant, through one of his followers, learnt about Singh and came in contact with him nearly two months ago, "Impressed with Singh, the complainant, on April 27, called him at his house and got a puja performed by him so that the tough time the complainant was going through gets over. Singh then had told him that his followers include many influential people. He can help him by using his contacts in banks in getting him Rs 40 crore-bank loan to overcome his losses. But, to process the loan he would need Rs 3.85 crore as deposit, Singh had told the complainant," informed a police officer.

Singh had told said the complainant that he would also help him buying diamonds from his known diamond merchants at affordable rates.

The convinced complainant borrowed money from his friends and relatives and arranged Rs 3.77 crore. Around a week ago, Singh took the complainant to a bank in Vashi and, after receiving Rs 3.77 crore cash, asked him to go inside and meet certain officers with whom he had already spoken.

The complainant, after handing him over the cash, went inside and on returning found that the Singh had escaped with the money. He then approached Tardeo police and lodged a case under relevant sections of cheating and cheating by impersonation of Indian Penal Code.

Police analysed phone calls of Singh and recently traced his location in UP and detained him on Monday. Sources say that police have managed to recover over 90 per cent of the money.