Guwahati: Assam police on Thursday said they have arrested a self-styled godman who claimed to have received blessings of Lord Vishnu to resolve the problems of his devotees through his chamatkari chumban (miraculous kiss).
Ram Prakash Chauhan, who hails from a remote village in central Assam’s Morigaon district, has been attracting people in large numbers by claiming to have supernatural powers to solve physical and psychological problems of women, including marital discord.
“We arrested him after receiving complaints that he was hugging and kissing women in the name of therapy,” said officer-in-charge of the Morigaon police station.
The police also arrested his mother for her involvement in spreading the news of her son’s ‘therapeutic powers acquired from Lord Vishnu’ and transmitted through kisses to any woman seeking a solution for her problems.
Pointing out that the self-styled godman had also set up a temple outside his residence, police admitted that Chauhan had become very popular in that area within a few weeks time as people’s ‘magical healer’.
However, police came to know about the incident only after few local TV channels flashed the video of Chauhan kissing some women in the name of treatment. It is significant issue that magical healers are synonymous with Morigaon district, where literacy is lower than in other 32 districts of Assam.
The district has been a witness to many such incarnations of self-styled babas and magical healers in past also. Mayong in the district is called a black magic village as it houses scores of soothsayers.
