A farmer from Madhya Pradesh who publicly shared his struggle to find a bride and manage his 18-acre farmland during a spiritual gathering with Aniruddhacharya Maharaj was brutally murdered after a woman, using a fake identity, trapped him with a false promise of marriage to seize his property. The shocking incident has exposed how a viral video and social media manipulation led to the farmer’s murder, reflecting a chilling misuse of trust and spiritual vulnerability for property fraud.
Viral video drew scamsters’ attention
Indrakumar Tiwari, a 45-year-old part-time teacher and farmer from Padwar (Khitola) in Jabalpur, expressed his loneliness and inability to find a bride during a spiritual event last month. In a video that circulated widely on social media, Indrakumar can be seen telling Aniruddhacharya about his 18-acre farmland and his unmarried status. The godman responded playfully, suggesting he should become a “sadhu” and donate the land for public welfare, but did not offer serious advice to address the farmer’s concerns.
While the authenticity of the video remains unverified by Hindustan Times, it attracted the attention of scammers who saw an opportunity in Indrakumar’s vulnerable situation. Not long after the video went viral, Indrakumar disappeared, and on June 6, his body was found with a knife lodged in his neck in bushes near National Highway 28 in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district.
Fake identity, staged wedding, and murder
Investigations revealed that a woman named Sahiba Bano posed as “Khushi Tiwari” and approached Indrakumar on social media with a marriage proposal. Using a forged Aadhaar card to establish a fake identity, she convinced him to travel to Gorakhpur under the pretext of marriage. According to Kushinagar Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar, the woman and her associates laid a trap and staged a fake wedding ceremony with Indrakumar in Gorakhpur.
Just two hours after the staged marriage, Indrakumar was murdered, and his body was dumped in a drain in the Sukarouli area under Hata Kotwali in Kushinagar. Indrakumar had informed his family that he was going to Kushinagar to marry “Khushi,” unaware of the planned conspiracy against him. Police reported that the accused fled with the jewellery and cash he was carrying.
During the investigation, authorities discovered that Sahiba and her associates planned to use the fake marriage photographs to claim Indrakumar’s land by posing as his widow, thereby executing a property fraud under the guise of marriage. Sahiba Bano has been arrested, and efforts are ongoing to apprehend the remaining accomplices involved in the case.
Further investigation revealed that one of Sahiba’s accomplices, identified as Kushal, had reportedly been tricked in a similar staged marriage scam earlier in the year and was promised a share in the land sale after the murder. The case saw coordinated efforts between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh police, leading to the arrests while unearthing a deeper racket exploiting lonely individuals using spiritual and social vulnerabilities to grab their land.
