Police in East Kalimantan have arrested a religious teacher who declared himself a prophet of Islam and tricked his followers into giving him money and allowing him to have sex with their wives.
About 50 people followed 48-year-old Bantil, who like many Indonesians is known by only one name, living with him in a hamlet in Kutai Timur.
Police revealed that followers were told to submit alms to Bantil to be purified of their sins.
Those who could not afford to were obliged to allow him to sleep with their wives as an alternate means of purification.
“We arrested him after receiving a report from a resident,” Kutai Timur Police chief Adj Sr Comr Budi Santoso told the Jakarta Globe.
“So far there is only one person who was reported as being deceived by the perpetrator [by giving] Rp170 million [541,500 baht] to cleanse his sins. We suspect dozens of the followers’ wives slept with him to be purified. We’re still investigating it.”
Bantil has admitted to sleeping with his followers’ wives to cleanse their sins since 2006.