India, Oct. 18 -- Three men, including one posing as a tantric, have been arrested for allegedly cheating a 79-year-old retired businessman in Delhi's Shahdara of nearly Rs.40 lakh and stealing gold jewellery worth around Rs.15 lakh on the pretext of recovering buried ancestral treasure through occult rituals, police said on Sunday.

Police said the incident took place in August, when the accused allegedly gained the elderly man's confidence by showing him a gold coin and promising to recover buried ancestral gold.

They allegedly induced him to make cash and UPI payments, saying the money was needed to perform rituals to recover the gold. They then demanded more money to purchase tools and hire people, before staging a ritual at his resi...