Drinking thirtha proved dangerous for woman, daughter
BENGALURU: Sipping holy water given as a remedy for paralysis by a fake baba proved costly for an elderly woman and her daughter in the city as they did not realise they were being hoodwinked until the baba they had placed their trust on swept their house of all the gold ornaments on Saturday.
The Madiwala police, who have registered the case, are looking for the accused baba, who they believe to be a habitual thief posing as a baba to cheat the women. The baba has decamped with over 160 gm of gold ornaments on the pretext of performing a puja at the women’s house at BTM Layout First Stage.
The police said that the woman, who is 85 years old, and her daughter, who is aged 60, stay in the BTM Layout house. As the daughter is paralysed, the mother does the household chores and also works outside. Everything was as usual until Friday when the mother went to a medical store to bring medicine for her daughter.
As she bought the medicine and left the medical store, the baba approached the woman and inquired about the illness for which she was buying the medicines. When the woman told him that the medicines were for her daughter who is paralysed, the baba told her that allopathy treatment would never cure paralyse and that it could only be healed with a puja and drinking of holy water.
The baba managed to convince the woman as she was desperately looking for a miracle for her daughter. She took the baba to her house and introduced him to her daughter, who is confined to a chair most of the time. The baba left the house saying he would again visit their house the next morning with all the material required for the puja.
“During the visit, he learnt that the two women stayed alone at the house. The next day, he came with the puja material around 7 am. The woman offered him breakfast, following which they sat on the floor and set up his material. He asked the woman to wear all the gold ornaments they had, saying it was necessary for the puja. As they wore the ornaments and sat for the puja, he started chanting mantras and offered the duo the ‘holy water’. The moment they drank the thirtha, they fell unconscious. He had enough time to collect the gold ornaments and flee,” the police said.
The women realised that they had been robbed off their jewellery when the regained consciousness and filed a police complaint.
The police hope to arrest the accused soon as they believe the thief to be a resident of the same area and a habitual offender.