‘Tantra vidya’ scam on Instagram: MBA professional loses Rs 18 lakh, 3 held in Rajasthan
The Sriganganagar police have arrested three individuals who allegedly duped a woman from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, of about Rs 18 lakh by promising her a good future and marriage on social media.
Police station in-charge Subhash Chander said that three individuals — Vasudev Shastri, alias Manish Kumar; Ankit, alias Rudra Sharma of Ramgarh Shekhawati; and Pramod Bhargava, alias Bittu of Rajgarh — had been arrested. He said the kingpin of the gang was Naresh, alias Narendra Acharya, who was Ankit’s father.
Acharya used to lure people on Instagram claiming that they could get their problems solved and wishes fulfilled by way of special worship and “tantra vidya". Efforts are being made to recover the money swindled from the woman.
Garima Joshi (24), MBA, working in a Chennai-based company, had in a complaint accused Vasudev Shastri, Gautam Shastri, Narendra Acharya and Manish of duping her of Rs 18 lakh. She visited Sriganganagar in October 2024, watched Vasudev Shastri’s reel and spoke on mobile about her marriage and career. He asked her to do a remedy by worship claiming that he had achieved “Siddhis” for such works.
She said that Shastri took Rs 60,000 from her from October 6-8, 2024. After this, he started threatening her that if she left the “puja-paath" in between, then someone in her family was sure to die. He also made her talk to Gautam Shastri, Narendra Acharya and Manish on phone and said that they would sit in different directions and conduct prayers for her.
Joshi said that these people took a total of Rs 15.48 lakh from her online through different UPI IDs till February 6, 2025, but she did not get any result regarding career and marriage. When she asked for her money back, Shastri and his associates abused her and threatened her of wreaking havoc in her life.
She later came to know that they were “fake babas”, who allegedly extorted money by threatening clients. She sent a complaint to Sriganganagar Police by post, which was investigated. It surfaced that money had been deposited in the bank accounts of the suspects and their acquaintances through online transactions.
The police said as soon as the suspects came to know about Garima registering a case against them in Sriganganagar, all of them absconded and kept changing their locations, before being finally nabbed.
Rajasthan