<p>46-year-old Zu Fuyou, who claimed to be the "Jiuhua Mountain Buddha," allegedly raped the women and committed fraud over a seven-year period in 10 different provinces, according to Dongcheng District Public Security Bureau here.<br /><br />He was arrested in Guangqumen area of Dongcheng district in November last year, the state-run Global Times reported. Among his alleged victims was a lady migrant worker, to whom he had told that he could perform a ritual to drive her bad luck away and later prevailed on her to develop sexual relationship after convincing her that he was her husband in her previous life.<br /><br />Zhou Xiaozheng, director of the Law and Sociology Research Centre at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that the case outlined the fact that the Chinese society is lacking knowledge of religion.<br /><br />Zhou felt that the Chinese people do not believe in the authorities. "But they still need to believe in something, which opens weak points for some evil people to exploit."<br />Hu Jianqiang, the Bureau's spokesman, told the paper, "We've gathered all the evidence and the prosecution will start within one month."<br /><br />Police have found seven victims so far and are now working on catching Zu's middle-aged helper. At present, Zu has been charged with deluding four women into having sexual relationship with him and defrauding over 100 others of about USD 300,000.</p>
<p>46-year-old Zu Fuyou, who claimed to be the "Jiuhua Mountain Buddha," allegedly raped the women and committed fraud over a seven-year period in 10 different provinces, according to Dongcheng District Public Security Bureau here.<br /><br />He was arrested in Guangqumen area of Dongcheng district in November last year, the state-run Global Times reported. Among his alleged victims was a lady migrant worker, to whom he had told that he could perform a ritual to drive her bad luck away and later prevailed on her to develop sexual relationship after convincing her that he was her husband in her previous life.<br /><br />Zhou Xiaozheng, director of the Law and Sociology Research Centre at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that the case outlined the fact that the Chinese society is lacking knowledge of religion.<br /><br />Zhou felt that the Chinese people do not believe in the authorities. "But they still need to believe in something, which opens weak points for some evil people to exploit."<br />Hu Jianqiang, the Bureau's spokesman, told the paper, "We've gathered all the evidence and the prosecution will start within one month."<br /><br />Police have found seven victims so far and are now working on catching Zu's middle-aged helper. At present, Zu has been charged with deluding four women into having sexual relationship with him and defrauding over 100 others of about USD 300,000.</p>