Country obsessed with religion duped again!

Even in the twenty-first century, ours is a country obsessed with religion. We refuse to learn from our mistakes.

From time to time. this obsession has been taken advantage of in different ways. To politicians using religion and issues relating to religion is still probably the surest way to win power.

This time it was the turn of a doctor turned fraudster Ashok Didwalia who claimed he could triple investments in a fortnight by the blessings of a local deity. He cheated lakhs of people across seven states including an entire community of their lives’ savings and vanished off with crores of rupees. He managed to fool inncoent people for quite some time by actually giving them back double their money for the first few rounds of transactions. This trick by the conman managed to draw in more crowds and evoke the faith of innocent people  who were ready to take part even with the minimum investment value increasing every round. Ultimately, he absconded which finally gave people a rude shock and made them realize that they were duped.

Greed coupled with religious sentiments made a intoxicating concoction which made people to trust and reinvest the money they got in the first few rounds with this homeopathic doctor turned fraudster known as ‘Madi’ (mother) among his disciples.

RK Patel, DSP, CID (crime) told TOI, “The fraud could touch Rs 100 crore, according to our estimate. We have received complaints of Rs 10 crore from Gujarat.”

After six months of manhunt by a huge team of police, he has ultimately been caught today in Ahmedabad trying to flee with his wife in a car with two crore rupees in te booty.

The people he fooled through his excellently planned plan  are mostly poor people who sold of their belonging or mortgaged their houses to give money to Ashok. Many of these people are even contemplating mass suicide.

Hope we learn from our mistakes someday!