Three arrested for cheating techie of Rs 13.2 crore on promise of curing ailing daughters

On November 3, a complainant application in this case was submitted to the Pune city police by an IT professional who works for a talent acquisition company.

Based on his complaint, a first information report (FIR) was lodged at the Kothrud police station on Thursday, against five persons.

As stated in the FIR, the five accused persons included Vedika Pandharpurkar, Kunal Pandharpurkar, Deepak Khadke, Vedika’s mother and brother.

Police said the complainant is a highly qualified software professional, who worked with a prominent company in England from 2003 to 2010. He has two daughters, of whom one is suffering from a neurological disorder while the other suffers an autoimmune ailment.

He and his wife were facing difficulties in giving proper medication and care to their daughters in England, so the family shifted to India in 2010. The complainant took up a job at a company in Hinjewadi. Later, he also purchased a house in Kothrud.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the complainant’s wife met accused Khadake at a bhajani mandal — a group coming together for devotional songs. After knowing about the complainant’s daughter, Khadke introduced her to the couple Vedika and Kunal Pandharpurkar.

Vedika claimed that the spirit of a godman enters her body and she could cure all ailments the complainant’s daughters were suffering from. The three suspects then allegedly gathered all the information about the complainant’s sources of income and properties.

The suspects then started taking money from the complainant on the pretext of performing ‘healing rituals through the spirits of the godman that entered the woman’s body.

Later the suspects started claiming that various properties of the complainant including his houses in the UK Kingdom and Pune and agricultural land at their native village had faults and were causing the family their problems.

The suspects convinced the victim to sell his properties and transfer the proceeds to them, claiming that the money from the sale could also bring misfortune. They also convinced him to take loans by mortgaging jewelry and relatives’ houses to continue paying them.

As per the FIR, the accused took Rs 13.2 crores from 2018 till now, but did not cure the complainant’s daughters. The family finally realised that they had been cheated and filed a complaint with the police.

Investigation of this case was transferred to the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Pune city police crime branch. Investigators arrested three accused from Nashik area. “A court today remanded the three accused to police custody for eight days. Further investigation is on,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Vivek Masal.