Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore (MB)

Mangalore / Kinnigoly, Jun 30: Three young men reportedly came to a house in Tokur near Kinnigoly here under the guise of sari-vendors and duped the female inmates of a gold chain of a sovereign value at noon on Thursday.

The trio visited the house of Balakrishna Shettigar, and claimed to hail from Punaroor, also near Kinnigoly, to gain confidence.

They insisted that the women buy saris from them saying that they had been blessed in Kollur Mookambika temple. They also held out an emotional blackmail saying that a curse would fall on them if they did not buy the saris. They even offered them on instalments of Rs 20.

The three women - Sowmya, Netravati and Dakshayani - who have been earning their livelihood by rolling bidis, got scared with the thought of getting a curse.

The women are said to have gone under some trance-like influence for sometime, and during this period, one of them, Dakshayani is understood to have handed over a gold chain of a sovereign value to the three men.

While the culprits vanished quietly, the women continued to be in a state of daze, neither having food nor coming out of the house.

Around 5 pm, the women are said to have returned to normal condition. It has remained a mystery as to what the culprit trio did to the women to put them in a hypnotized state.

The police sources have warned the public not to entertain strangers into their houses, especially in the absence of menfolk.