CHENNAI: The police have arrested an accused who posed as a godman and claimed to ward off evil spirits cast on a family, and escaped with their cash and gold jewellery in Tiruvanmiyur.

The police said the incident happened on Wednesday. The accused knocked on the doors of a house on Mettu Street in Tiruvanmiyur and told the woman that black magic was performed on her family. He told her that a ritual needs to be done to negate its effects.

Believing the godman, the woman allowed him inside the house, and the man made a show of performing rituals. He then asked her to keep the clothes of her and her husband, and the money and gold jewellery she was wearing for the ritual.

The woman, Manju, kept her gold bangles, gold earrings and Rs 10,000 cash for the ritual, and the man had then asked her to fetch water. When she went inside the kitchen, he escaped with cash and jewellery, police said.

Tiruvanmiyur police registered a case based on a complaint from the woman and arrested the accused, Balamurugan (50) of Kottivakkam. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.