Hyderabad: Friend' introduced fake tantrik to Lifestyle's Madhusudhan Reddy

Hyderabad: Fake tantrik Shivananda, who struck at the house of Lifestyle building owner Madhusudhan Reddy, would perform bogus pujas for his victims to convince them that he had supernatural powers to double money.

Police said that he carried small amounts of money which he would show clients as having appeared from nowhere. He would then persuade victims into “doubling” bigger amounts and flee with the money after drugging them with a mixture of datura and white sesame seeds.

Police arrested Shivananada, who allegedly cheated Mr Madhusudan Reddy of Rs 1.33 crore. Police seized Rs 1,19,50,000 and arrested two others who helped him Mr Madhusudhan Reddy’s friend Mohan Reddy, through whom the former had met the conman a year-and-a-half ago, is absconding.

Hyderabad police commissioner Mahender Reddy said that a year ago, when Mr Madhusudan Reddy had met Shivananda at a club in Bengaluru, he had been told of his powers. He had “magically” doubled an amount of Rs 2 lakh.

“Since he (Shiva) did not have sufficient money, he borrowed Rs 1.7 lakh from his friends Damodar and Srinivas Reddy, promising he would return thrice the amount. Mohan Reddy also gave him Rs 70,000 for expenses, which he used at a demo puja conducted at Madhusudan Reddy’s house,” the commissioner said.

Shiva told Mr Madhusudan Reddy that he possessed ‘rice pulling coins’, which had high market value abroad and offered him a share. He showed a special wooden box, which allegedly contained the coin. Cops did not find any coin in the box.

Shivananda, a native of Chittoor, is a college dropout who had fled from home. After working at a few places in Bengaluru, he had joined the Shivasai Baba Ashram at Bengaluru as an electrician. Later he shifted to the Kuruvoil Ayurvedic Ashram at Tirupati and learned some ayurvedic techniques and came back to Shivasai Baba Ashram. “There he learned tricks to cheat innocent people from one Anantacharyulu and both started cheating people,” he said.

Income-tax officials seized cash from home

Income-tax officials have approached the police, seeking possession of the cash seized from a godman who performed puja at the house of Mr Madhusudan Reddy stating the Lifestyle building owner owed some tax to the government

Police said that the cash would be deposited in the court from where the income-tax department could claim it, sources in the Banjara Hills police told this newspaper.