MUMBAI: Star News recently made a bold exposé of 'tantriks' in the country, which blew the lid off a startling and rather widespread racket. The channel uncovered the fraud on a daily basis for 21 days through its popular crime bulletins - Sansani and Red Alert. Captured on camera, these tantriks have admitted to gross wrongdoing. Some of the crimes perpetrated by this widespread tribe of offenders include rape, extortion and even murder.

These tantriks often initiate their trickery with a Rs 100 fee and later extract anywhere between Rs 5000 - Rs 100,000 making false promises to the innocent victims. If the victims refuse to comply with their demands they threaten to get them possessed by an evil spirit and other dire circumstances.

Subsequent to the overwhelming response from the viewers on the initial revelations, Star News kicked off an aggressive campaign to expose this evil. The channel threw open a dedicated phone line for viewers to report about such fraudulent tantriks they have encountered or are aware of.

Close to 40,000 viewers called in since the night of 27 December, 2004, and complaints poured in from different parts of the country, which in itself was a proof of the rather wide spread social evil. This campaign lasted 21 days and resulted in exposing the conniving ways of close to 100 tantriks across the country and the arrests of many tantriks in Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur and in other parts of the country. Many others have even shut shop due to fear of being exposed.

In some cases, Star News reporters accompanied the complainants to help them recover what is their rightful and hard earned money. In most cases reporters have ingeniously disguised themselves as customers and captured these tantriks 'in the act' on camera and exposed their wrong ways.

This campaign reinforces Star News’ promise to its viewers and illustrates once gain its investigative prowess.