Con men dupe Indian doctor into buying Aladdin's lamp for £155,000

A doctor in India was duped into buying "Aladdin's lamp" for the price of £155,000, after being promised it would bring him wealth and good fortune. Dr Laeek Khan approached Uttar Pradesh police on October 25, and filed the complaint against two men and a woman who sold him the magic lamp after realising that it did not have any such power to grant him what he was promised.

The doctor reportedly met the two men while he was treating a woman he thought was their mother. He had performed surgery on the woman in 2018 and had been making house calls for post-surgery care.

Over the course of his house calls, the two men started telling him about a "baba" whom they claimed often visited their home and performed rituals. One of the men also claimed to be an occultist and that he had the power to conjure a "jinn."

They eventually brainwashed Khan into meeting the said baba and made him believe they were able to make a "jinn" appear from the lamp in an effort to convince him of the lamp's authenticity and magical powers.

"During one visit Aladdin actually made an appearance in front of me. I did not know who this person was at that time," Khan said.

At some point, the doctor asked if he could touch the jinn or if he can take the lamp home. The men refused and said doing so could cause him harm.

The con men were successful in eventually convincing Khan to buy the lamp. They wanted more than 15 million rupees (£155,000) for the lamp saying that it was actually Aladdin's real lamp. But Khan at the time did not have enough money to meet their price. They struck a deal and agreed on a down payment of £32,000, the BBC reported.

"I later realised one of the accused was dressed up as Aladdin," Khan explained.

Senior Meerut police officer, Amit Rai said, "We have found that the same men went to other homes in the city too and cheated many families."

The men were arrested on Thursday and were remanded in custody ahead of charges being filed. The woman made out to be the ailing mother treated by Khan was actually the wife of one of the men. She is also involved in the fraud and is currently at large.