Chennai: Five quacks practising homeopathy held by CCB

Chennai: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the city police have arrested five quacks from across the state for allegedly practising homoeopathy using fake certificates. Recently, on August 21, a 52-year-old man from Thanjavur N. Balakrishnan was arrested by the CCB sleuths.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, five of them- M. Velmurugan (53) native of Pinnathur in Cuddalore district, S. Sridharan (39) of Karuvalour in Tiruppur district, J. Anilkumar (51) of Annaimalaiyan Patti in Theni district, S. Kumar (68) of Melur in Madurai district and N. Ravikumar (50) of Kasankadu Naduthopu in Coimbatore district were arrested.

CCB had recently registered a FIR after the registrar of the Tamil Nadu Homeopathy Medical Council (TNHMC) lodged a complaint of an alleged scam involving erstwhile office bearers of the council wherein fake certificates were issued to several practitioners.

In the FIR, several former members of the TNHMC including C. Soundarrajan, a former registrar and its president G.P. Hahnemann were named, police said.

Police sources said that thee are at least 40 persons who were allegedly issued fake certificates between 2010 and 2012.

Meanwhile, those arrested were brought to the city for further investigations. Police sources said that the accused were booked under various sections including 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as a genuine one). They were produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.