BENGALURU: A 31-year-old man, who took advantage of a 35-year-old woman's helplessness as she could not find any solution for her son's illness, claimed himself to be an astrologer and sexually exploited her seven times, saying that somebody had cast a spell on her and he would remove it. The accused, who had also cheated the woman of Rs 20 lakh and gold jewellery, has been arrested by the Vijayanagar police.
The accused, Prasanna Kumar, is a resident of Kamalanagar. In November 2016, he had approached the victim and introduced himself as a worker of an NGO that collects money for the welfare of differently-abled children. The 35-year-old woman in RPC Layout, who had donated Rs 200, had also mentioned her details including the phone number in the donation receipt.
“He again approached her for incense sticks as donation. Meanwhile, he claimed he was an astrologer and knew how to read faces. He told the woman that seeing her face, he could make out that she was in trouble. Trusting him, she revealed that her son was suffering from epilepsy and visits to several doctors had not yielded any result. Taking advantage, Prasanna, with an intention to have a sexual intercourse with her, told her that she had some dosha (curse) in her body and that had led to her problems. Further, he convinced her that he could get rid of her problems if she had an intercourse with him. He also made a woman speak to her over the phone and convince her,” the police said.
“The accused started sexually harassing her when her husband was not at home. He made her smoke cigarettes that had some narcotic substance. Once she lost her senses, he allegedly made her strip and videorecorded her. Later, he claimed that he had seen the video and it was confirmed that her body had a dosha. Believing him, the woman conceded to his demands. The accused allegedly had intercourse with the woman on seven occasions. Besides, he also extorted her of her gold jewellery and Rs 20 lakh cash, claiming that he was conducting rituals to help her son to recover. The woman realised that she had been duped when he switched off his phone. She later narrated the incident to her husband and filed the complaint. Based on evidences, the accused was arrested,” the police said. The police have recovered from him Rs 14 lakh, 300 gm of gold jewellery from him.
