Two murder cases have been dominating Indonesian headlines recently. The first is the ongoing trial of Jessica Keumala Wongso, who stands accused of killing her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin with a glass of poisoned coffee. The second is that of Dimas Kanjeng, a man who claims to be a spiritual guru with the ability to magically multiply money and who was arrested in Probolinggo, East Java two weeks ago on the suspicion that he ordered hits on two of his former disciples last year.
Recently, two killings were uncovered in Depok which, strangely enough, seem to contain elements from both of the aforementioned murder cases.
Police have arrested two suspects in the case, a 35-year-old identified as Anton and a 32-year-old identified as Riyadi.
Authorities say Anton is the leader of a spiritual group called Padepokan Satria Aji and that the two murder victims, Ahmad Sanusi and Shandy Eko Budianto, were his followers.
“They were victims of a fraud who practiced shamanism who said he could magically create gold. Followers or participants had to give a certain deposit of money to Anton. We are still looking into it,” said Depok Police Commissioner Teguh Nugroho on Monday as quoted by Detik.
Teguh said that Ahmad and Shandy had been promised by Anton that he would provide them gold bullion in exchange for their cash. But instead of magicking up some of the precious metal as promised at a meeting yesterday, police say he simply took their money and killed the two men using a murder weapon very familiar to Jakartans – poisoned coffee.
According to Teguh, the coffee caused the two victims to bleed from the mouth before dying.
The victims bodies were then moved and placed in two different locations by Anton and Riyadi using a car. After the bodies were discovered, police investigations led them to the con-artist and his accomplice.
While raiding Anton’s home, police seized evidence including five pieces of gold bullion, which turned out to simply be pieces of brass that he used to deceive his followers.
Police have not yet announced what charges the two men will face.
