Odisha’s New ‘Hera Pheri’: Fake Sadhus Move From Film Fantasy To Doorstep Crime

Bhubaneswar: There was a time when “Hera Pheri” belonged to the movies.

In the 1976 Amitabh Bachchan-Vinod Khanna starrer Hera Pheri, the two protagonists disguise themselves as sadhus and use deception against corrupt and wealthy targets. It was cinema, they were the heroes, and the “hera pheri” was part of an entertaining plot.

In Odisha today, however, the disguise has moved out of the screen – and the script has changed dramatically.

The fake sadhus are no longer targeting the corrupt rich. They are knocking on the doors of ordinary people.

The arrest of a three-member gang allegedly posing as spiritual gurus brings into focus an evolving crime pattern in Odisha. According to Rourkela DSP Manoranjan Pradhan, the accused allegedly went from house to house, frightened residents with false claims and cheated them of cash and gold ornaments.

What makes the case significant is not merely the alleged theft. It is the method: religion as camouflage, fear as the weapon and sleight of hand as the final act.

From wandering tricksters to mobile crime modules

Available crime reports and police briefs indicate that this is not an entirely new phenomenon. But its operational character has changed sharply.

The available materials estimate that incidents involving this specific door-to-door, fear-based fake-spiritual-guru modus operandi have risen from isolated cases in the middle of the last decade to 10-plus cases during January-September 2026. These are estimates rather than an official consolidated crime series because police records generally register such offences under broader cheating or theft provisions rather than a separate “fake sadhu” category.

Period	Estimated cases

Changing pattern

2014-15

1-3

Isolated incidents; attention largely on large ashram-related scandals

2016-17

2-4

Small-time operators exploiting haats and festival crowds

2018-19

4-6

Movement into suburban colonies; first signs of groups travelling from neighbouring states

2020-21

8-12

Pandemic anxiety exploited through “purification” and death-related fears

2022

6-8

Movement into industrial belts where cash and gold were readily available

2023

7-9

Doorstep operations become more visible around Bhubaneswar's peripheral settlements

2024

9-11

Greater targeting of urban residential colonies

2025

8-10

Fake IDs and vehicles used for rapid movement between districts

2026 Jan-Sept

10+

Increasing evidence of organised interstate operations

The numbers should therefore be read as a trend indicator, not an official statewide crime count.

The geography of the new ‘Hera Pheri’

The pattern is also revealing geographically.

Sundargarh, particularly the Rourkela urban network, has emerged as an important hotspot because dense residential colonies provide access to households with accumulated savings, jewellery and cash. The latest police action involving DSP Manoranjan Pradhan fits into this larger pattern.

Khordha, including Bhubaneswar's peripheral settlements, presents another attractive operating environment: rapidly expanding residential areas, isolated houses and households where elderly persons or homemakers may be alone during the day.

Cuttack offers another combination – dense urban and semi-urban settlements where temporary operators can rent accommodation, strike nearby neighbourhoods and disappear.

In Ganjam, the long history of faith-based exploitation has provided a different background, while Sambalpur and Deogarh are vulnerable to mobile groups moving through western corridors. Northern districts such as Balasore and Mayurbhanj provide another transit environment because of their proximity to the West Bengal border.

Why is the pattern growing?

The first reason is simple: fear works faster than persuasion.

The modern gang does not necessarily promise a miracle. It manufactures a crisis.

A family is allegedly told that a death, curse, illness or impending misfortune is hanging over the household. Once panic sets in, the “guru” offers a ritualistic solution. Cash and gold are placed inside a cloth or vessel for purification. The sleight of hand happens during the ritual – and the valuables disappear.

The second factor is the fragmentation of the old spiritual-fraud model.

Large, stationary fake-godman establishments attracted sustained police and public scrutiny. The newer model is smaller, faster and harder to detect: three to five persons, temporary accommodation, selected neighbourhoods, quick strikes and immediate movement.

The third factor is mobility.

Interstate gangs: the new element

This may be the most important change in the crime pattern.

The available material points to recent networks whose members came from outside Odisha. In one Sundargarh fake-baba case, police reportedly found all five arrested accused were from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The reports also identify the links or origins involving networks from Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

That changes the policing challenge.

The old local trickster could be traced through his neighbourhood, language and local contacts. A mobile interstate gang can enter a district, identify vulnerable households, conduct several operations, load its cash and gold into a vehicle and cross a state border before investigators establish the pattern. The case study reports also point to the use of other-state vehicles or rented vehicles and fabricated identities as part of this mobility.

There is another telltale sign: language. Investigators in some cases reportedly found that fake sadhus could dress convincingly in saffron but struggled with Odia and local religious practices – suggesting that the spiritual appearance was an operational costume rather than evidence of local religious familiarity.

The real evolution of the crime

The trajectory is therefore clear: from institutional spiritual fraud to fragmented doorstep deception; from local tricksters to mobile gangs; and from persuasion to fear-based psychological manipulation.

The study analysis, therfore, divides the evolution broadly into three phases – the fragmented shift after major ashram crackdowns, the pandemic-era exploitation of health and death anxieties, and the post-2023 emergence of more structured interstate syndicates.

That is what makes the latest three-member arrest more than another cheating case.

The cinematic Hera Pheri had two disguised men playing anti-heroes and taking on the corrupt rich.

Odisha's real-life version has reversed the script: the disguise remains, the deception remains, but the victim is now the common household – and the “guru” at the doorstep may actually be the thief looking for the next house to enter.
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