On the 30th of January, a self-styled Muslim godman was booked in Mumbai for cheating several people in the name of curing their severe diseases, helping secure a US visa and solving marital issues. The RAK Marg Police in Sewri booked the accused Abubakar Mohammad Ali Shaikh on the complaint of one of Abubakar’s victims. The accused also performed animal sacrifices in exchange for a huge amount of money on the pretext of solving the problems of his victims.
According to the FIR copy accessed by OpIndia, the victim, a Muslim woman from RAK Marg, suffered from severe body pain and despite undergoing treatment in various hospitals her health did not improve. One day the accused Muslim ‘godman’ came to her house and claimed that he could cure her pain in just 40 days by performing some ‘black magic’ rituals. However, Abubakar demanded Rs 4 lakh and gold in exchange saying that he would sacrifice a goat and offer donation at Dargahs.
The complainant further claimed that accused Abubakar again ‘cast some spells’ on 2 white Taweez and gave them to her and told her to keep 1 taweez under the cupboard in her house and another under the stone in the gallery. The victim also gave him 2 tolas of gold including a pair of earrings and a mangalsutra, and a sum of Rs. 50,000 to the accused on 23rd March last year.
The complainant added that she approached the accused again to perform some ‘black magic’ to bring peace in her house as her daughters-in-law and their families often had disputes now and then. Moreover, the complainant referred her relative to the accused for getting her son a job in the United States for which he took Rs 1.70 lakh from the relative to perform black magic. The complainant mentioned that the accused did not fulfill his promised commitments despite taking the money.
The fraudster also offered a cure for one of the friends of the complainant woman who suffered from cancer. Accused Abubakar told her that she would die in 12 days if she failed to perform the rituals suggested by him. He also took money from a friend of the complainant for performing rituals to stop her baby from crying. The police said the victims have lost Rs 6,12,000 and 230 grams of gold worth Rs 11,50,000.
The 32-year-old Muslim ‘godman’ has been booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and section 3 of the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013.
The police stated that after the complaint received no relief even after the ‘black magic’ rituals were performed, they confronted accused Abubakar, who offered them a written assurance that he would return their money shortly. He, however, began evading them. The police added that an investigation has been initiated into the matter and they are gathering evidence.
Hindustan Times publishes misleading headline, calls Muslim accused as ‘Tantrik’
On February 1, Hindustan Times published a report (archive) about the filing of an FIR against accused Muslim ‘godman’ Abubakar with a misleading headline: “Tantrik booked for duping women by offering a cure for cancer, helping secure US visa”. The publication did not mention the name of the accused in the headline and simply wrote ‘Tantrik’ to perhaps ‘secularise’ the crime and give the impression that the accused is a Hindu man who duped the complainant in the name of ‘Tantra-Mantra’.
Netizens were quick to call out the publication for supposedly trying to cover up the religious identity of the accused Muslim man pretending to be a ‘godman’.
Name of the fraudster:
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) February 1, 2024
Abubakar Mohammad Ali Shaikh
Shame on you @HindustanTimes for calling him a Tantrik.
This article by @htTweets isn’t only anti-Hindu propaganda but a defamatory hate speech against Hindu community.
CC: @MumbaiPolice @Dev_Fadnavis pic.twitter.com/gD9FdayBE3
Taking to X Supreme Court lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha wrote, “Name of the fraudster: Abubakar Mohammad Ali Shaikh. Shame on you @HindustanTimes for calling him a Tantrik. This article by @htTweets isn’t only anti-Hindu propaganda but a defamatory hate speech against Hindu community.”
