Mumbai: Promising better life, Tantrik lured poor kids and molested them

The 67-year-old's acts came to light when a 16-year-old girl told the police that he had been getting her drunk and abusing her in his Virar flat since a few months

In yet another instance of a baba proving to be a black sheep, the Charkop police have arrested a tantrik who had been posing as a do-gooder and getting a 16-year-old girl drunk and molesting her for several months. They have rescued three other girls, believed to be around 13 years old, who were also living with him.

Anil Bharate

According to the police, Anil Bharate (67) used to target girls from poor families and offer to give them a nice place to stay and pay for their education and other expenses. He would also offer to help out the families if they allowed him to ‘help’ their daughters.

Anil Bharate approached the poor girl’s family members, whom he knew well, and said he would pay for her education and other expenses. He convinced them to let her stay at his rented house in Virar

The family members of the 16-year-old survivor, who live in Kandivli, had been similarly tricked by Bharate, and they had allowed her to live with the tantrik in a flat that he had taken on rent in Virar. The girl’s family is very poor and they thought that Bharate really intended to help them out.

For the past few months, he had been giving the girl alcohol, claiming it was a health tonic. He would molest her and abuse her when she fell asleep

While Bharate did pay for the survivor’s education and other expenses, he began molesting her over the past few months. “Bharate was like my grandfather, but he wronged me. From the past few months, he used to come close to me and try to touch me inappropriately.

When Bharate gave her alcohol and molested her again on Sunday, the girl informed her mother, who took her to the Charkop police station to file a complaint the same night

I caught him touching me late at night many times, but he pretended to be asleep. For the past two months, he had been molesting me after making me drink alcohol,” the girl told the Charkop police in her statement. Bharate allegedly used to make the girl consume the alcohol by claiming that it was a tonic for good health.

Police arrested Bharate from his Virar flat yesterday. They realised that he had also kept three girls believed to around 13 years old at his flat in Kandivli, and rescued them. Illustrations/Amit Bandre

Police Sub-Inspector Anita Tonde of Charkop police station said, “The survivor’s mother had faith in the baba and allowed her daughter to stay with him in Virar. The accused would sleep next to the survivor in the flat and gave alcohol to her on several occasions.

Late at night, when the survivor was in deep sleep, he allegedly molested her and abused her.” “She realised what was happening on a few occasions, but she was not sure. On Sunday night, Bharate gave her alcohol and molested her again. This time, the survivor ran from the house and informed her mother about the incident.

The mother approached us the same night and we arrested the accused on Monday morning,” said an officer from Charkop police station.

Other girls
Bharate, who also has a flat in Pushp Mitra society in Kandivli (West), kept three minor girls from Latur there. The girls are believed to be about 13 years old, and he would take care of their education and other expenses as well.

The police suspect he had tricked their families into letting them come and live with him in Mumbai. PSI Tonde said, “We also found three 13-year-old girls from the accused’s Kandivli residence. We suspect that he had molested these girls as well. The three girls are from Latur and belong to poor families.

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