Overview

• Police registered an FIR against Sanjay Pagare under multiple Indian Penal Code sections for fraud, assault, and promoting superstition.
• Activists from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Anti-Superstition Committee conducted a hidden-camera sting on July 17 that documented forced urine drinking and beatings.
• He escaped from his Shiur village temple with several followers shortly after the FIR was filed and remains at large.
• Victims reported enduring a two-year campaign of degrading “aghori” rituals, including shoe-smelling, tree-leaf ingestion, and being beaten with sticks.
• Civil-society groups are calling for stricter implementation of the Maharashtra Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act to prevent similar cases of spiritual exploitation.