Exploiting a mother’s unending hopes from her son’s destiny, a fake astrologer from Jalgaon, Ganesh Baburao Joshi duped 63-year-old Sarojini Iyer of Rs8 lakh. The Santa Cruz police arrested Joshi as well as two of his accomplices Ramesh Joshi and Haridas Rathod from Royal Garden hotel on Juhu Tara Road on Thursday.
A resident of Andheri, Iyer consulted Joshi after having seen his advertisement in a newspaper earlier this month, to discuss if her son had chances of getting a job abroad. Joshi assured her of positive results if she performed an elaborate religious ceremony. When Iyer further asked her for Rs3 lakh and two photographs of her son, she promptly paid Rs2.5 lakh to the trio.
However, Joshi called the complainant again and demanded Rs6 lakh more which she promised to give on May 21. When she did not get in touch till that day, Joshi called her repeatedly and successfully convinced her to fund the puja on May 23. “The complainant however got suspicious when the baba told her after the puja that his guru would call from Haridwar and warned her not to upset him and to pay heed to his demands,” said senior inspector Madhukar Choudhary.
The victim thereby approached the Santa Cruz police and registered a case against the trio. Booked for cheating, the trio has been remanded to police custody till May 28.
