Mumbai:
In a sordid, intricate scam that the Mumbai police cracked open on Sunday, a 46-year-old witch doctor, Mehendi Hassan, who claimed to have magical powers to 'ward off evil' was found to have duped or forced a married woman, her sister and two daughters, and their house keeper to have sexual intercourse with him over a period of time that began in May last year.
The baba's heinous ways were finally put to a stop after the JJ Marg police arrested him last evening.
All the five women, and three other minors whom Hassan had molested, were at the police station narrating their horrific experiences to the police.
He has been booked under Sections 376, 504 and 313 of the Indian Penal Code among others that charge him with rape, causing hurt, causing miscarriage and criminal intimidation.
Piecing together the elaborate and as yet hazy sex scheme the baba had plotted, a police official said, "The offence began in May 2009 and continued up until now. We are reconstructing the sequence of events."
The women belong to a well-to-do household in Colaba. The daughters go to a high-profile college in South Mumbai. One of them is 17 and the other one is in her second year of BA.
Earlier this month, when Hassan found out that the two became pregnant because of his repeatedly violating them, he took them to a non-descript hospital in Dongri to abort the pregnancy.
Later, police would find out that Hassan had taken three other minor girls, all 17, to the same hospital for abortion.
According to the two sisters, their mother introduced Hassan to them and the house maid in May 2009. She got to know of him through her sister who had visited him last year.
Once Hassan gained the family's confidence, he dropped into their residence a couple of times to "cleanse" the house with pujas.
"He would offer a red-coloured drink to the girls, which was probably drug-laced," said a police official who didn't want to be named.
Once they gulped that, he would call them to a lodge in Mumbai Central where he allegedly had sex with them. "He threatened the girls not to disclose their visits to the lodge to their parents," added the official.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Hassan changed his place of work every year. He would call the girls to Amina Apartments in Null Bazar and Maria Tower in Pydhonie.
Fed up of the intimidation, the sisters broke down and related the events to their father in Bandra.
When he called the girls to meet him in a hotel in South Mumbai on Saturday night, the father informed the police who laid a trap around the hotel. As soon as Hassan arrived, the police detained him.
Inspector Suresh Patil said that Hassan was arrested for rape. "We are busy recording the statements of the victims and finishing the procedure as we have to produce Hassan in court tomorrow," said Patil.
Police are trying to tie the loose ends of the case and are probing how the baba managed to reel in the family's women one after another and how everyone got involved.