One of such cheats has just been arrested and gold worth Rs 85 lakh recovered from his possession. However, his guru is still absconding.

Of late, a few men impersonating like a fakir obtained entry in some of the houses and later robbed the residents off valuables and ornaments by ``hypnotising'' them.

The mystery shrouding some of the cheating cases in Srinagar was solved with arrest of Nazir Ahmad Rather of Wagoora, Ganderbal from Bandipora by Khanyar Police Station. Nazir Ahmad Rather, impersonating a darvesh on the pretext of getting the health and other problems solved, would subsequently disappear with their valuables.

Tanveer Jeelani, SDPO Khanyar told J&K Newsline that they havereceived a number of complaints regarding a middle aged fakir frequently cheating people in Srinagar. ``The physical features of the cheat described by the complainant are identical but his style of cheating differed from family to family,'' said SDPO, Khanyar.

A classic case is one filed by Farooq Ahmad Bhat of Ikhraj Pora, Jawahar Nagar -- according to the report, one Nazir Ahmad acting as a darvesh met Farooq while he was on his way to hospital to attend to his son undergoing treatment for brain tumour.

A worried Farooq was stopped by the alleged impostor, who asked him for a glass of milk. Before Farooq could pay heed to his request, the darvesh murmured -- ``the cure of your son is not in hospital but with you.''

These words mesmeriesd Farooq who, in turn, started taking every word of his as prophetic. Nazir told Farooq that ornaments in his house are the root cause for all the problems.

The remedy he suggested was to come along with him to Dastgir Sahib, where he will read someverses to get out the evil spirits from it. ``He asked to go around the shrine reciting the name of God. But when we came back to the spot where he was praying, we found him missing. Our search ended when we found the man had skipped away with all the ornaments,'' said Farooq.

The Khanyar Police began their probe when a constable suspected a person from his village Wagoora, in Ganderbal. Constable Bashir led by assistant sub-inspector Assadulah Mir launced a hunt; preliminary investigations led them towards Bandipore. During a search of passing by vehicles they spotted Nazir in one of them.They at once pounced at him and brought him to Srinagar.

During interrogation Nazir admitted the crime and this led police to the recovery of gold worth 85 lakhs from his house.