ImageBangalore: Belief in superstition cost several women in the city dearly when they befriended a pavement astrologer with a flair for marriage and race horses. The police arrested Nityananda Shatri (40) after Vijaya Saraswati, a devotee from the city lost Rs. 20 lakh in cash and 50 grams of gold by falling for the charms of the fake astrologer. The police were aghast when they realised that they had just stumbled upon the tip of the iceberg and much more lay hidden below the surface.
Shatri fooled five women into marriage by giving them imitation jewellery and posing as an astrologer. He also extracted money from others for expensive puja ceremonies to solve their problems. Shatri, an electrician from Mangalore came to the city in 1998 in search of a job. After several failed attempts to make an honest living; he befriended Rangaraj, a pavement astrologer and decided to take up astrology. After learning the trade he extracted vast amounts of money from unsuspecting victims to conduct pujas, but instead he used it to bet on race horses.
Shatri targeted women, and to impress them he gifted dresses and imitation jewellery. Though he was already married to Komala of Kasaragodu in 2001, he made no attempt to hide his intentions of marrying his devotees. {Read on}
