Three men strangled to death as tantrik’s ‘money multiplier’ spell goes awry

Three men died following an occult ritual intended to multiply money in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district on Wednesday (December 10, 2025) night. According to police, the victims were strangled during the ritual, which was believed to increase wealth.

Five persons, including a tantrik, have been detained in connection with the incident, Korba Superintendent of Police Siddharth Tewari said.

Two of the deceased, Mohammad Ashraf Memon and Suresh Sahu, were from Korba, while one, Nitish Kumar, was from Baloda Bazaar. The rituals were performed in a closed room on land belonging to Memon, a scrap dealer, in Korba’s Kudri village.

Tantrik’s spell

“The victims had asked the tantrik and his accomplices to conduct a jhadan, an occult procedure, which multiplies money ... They were strangulated during the ritual,” said Mr. Tewari.

Mr. Tewari added that some family members and associates of the victims who were present outside the room took them to hospital where they were declared dead on arrival. The police were subsequently informed.

An inquiry is ongoing, and on Thursday evening, the police were awaiting the post-mortem report. As of now, the police have detained five persons: the tantrik, his accomplices, and the person who brought them to Memon’s premises for the ritual.

In a similar case a woman was murdered in Raipur, allegedly by two men who accused her of performing black magic. Chhattisgarh has a local law against witchcraft under which 450 cases were registered from early 2019 to September 2024, which included cases of murder, extortion, harassment, and even rape over witchcraft allegations. The Hindu sourced this data from the State government in the immediate aftermath of an incident in Sukma in which five members of a family were beaten to death over similar allegations.