This tantrik allegedly fleeced people of five villages and poisoned at least four villagers to death. Hira Lal had people of villages of Radauli in Barabanki district, 90 kilometres from Lucknow, believing that their land was a goldmine. Finally, he was caught some days back, when an intended victim contacted the police.Hira Lal says that he told the villagers: ‘‘Sell your land worth lakhs, hand over the money to me. We will use the money to buy gold, which we will bury inside your house and perform a pooja to please Bhavani maa. You treat me to a meal of chicken and alcohol. This will bring up the deep-buried gold. After eight days, your investment would multiply 10-fold. Pour alcohol regularly over the spot for eight days.’’ Lal said he would pocket the gold and bury stones wrapped in a cloth in its place. He would talk about the deal only with earning members of families, allegedly threatening them that if the secret was revealed to anyone else, Bhavani maa would cause the person’s death and make the gold disappear. ‘‘He would then hand over a bottle containing poison to the victim, saying he should drink it before digging for the gold. The victims died instantaneously while the rest of the family were left wondering what had caused his death and where the money from the land sale had gone,’’ says sub-inspector O.P. Yadav of the Barabanki police, who arrested Hira Lal.Police say he has killed four people but the toll could be higher. Lal allegedly migrated from Allahabad to settle in Radauli and married a local 17-year-old girl some time back. But for a mistake, Lal might have never been caught. His last victim was Lakshmi Devi (60) of Puremalik village. He told Devi that her daughter and son-in-law Sukhdev would die unless she pleased Bhavani maa. He made Devi sell her land worth nearly a lakh rupees and asked her to purchase gold, which he allegedly buried inside her house. However Lakshmi told Sukhdev about the deal and Lal gave the poison to both of them. Devi drank it before Sukhdev and died moments later. Sukhdev then took the bottle to the police who tested the contents. Finding it contained poison, they arrested Hira Lal. When Sukhdev searched the spot where the gold was supposed to have been buried, he found it empty.
