Newindpress
Mangalore, Oct 15: Peddlers cheating gullible poor by selling rings with claims of magical powers to cure any disease from bed-wetting to cancer were exposed by well-known rationalist Prof Narendra Nayak on Sunday.
Indian Rationalists' Association (IRA) president Prof Narendra Nayak told Express that these peddlers operate countrywide and sell their wares at places frequented by poor people. Most of these peddlers hailing from Bengal spread before them an array of rings priced from Rs 10 to Rs 51.
A week ago, Prof Nayak posing as a customer had purchased the most expensive ring by paying Rs 51. The peddler, to impress Prof Nayak, played a pre-recorded cassette in Kannada extolling the spin-off benefits of wearing such rings.
He handed pamphlets with Kannada blurbs and to top it all a guarantee card in English. “These rings will work from a minimum seven to 91 days,” Prof Nayak informs and adds that a promise of returning money is actually a ploy to sell another expensive ring.
On Sunday, Prof Nayak, deciding to document the fraud, took along members of London-based KEO films who were in city documenting on alternative systems of medicine not in mainstream, for Discovery channel and Channel 4. The peddler on sighting Prof Nayak and the video cameras beat a hasty retreat.
Prof Nayak, however, cornered another peddler who confessed on working for the earlier vendor on a commission basis. As the crowd size swelled, the vendor returned Prof Nayak’s Rs 50 and left the place.
“This is the tip of a iceberg,” the rationalist informs. “Our objective is not targeting minions in this cycle of fraud,” Prof Nayak clarifies. These peddlers cheat poor of Rs 51, which can buy a minimum three kgs of rice.
Bigger cheats siphon thousands of rupees from the rich by selling ‘rudrakshas’, ‘sphatika shivalingas’ among others. “We documented this experience to reveal that the claims of paranormal at all levels are a pack of lies". KEO Films comprising of Tan, Frankie Fathers, Gautam and twins who are physicians will travel to Mulky to document rationalist Prof Nayak’s expose on paranormal claims at the St Ann's College of Education in Mulky on Monday.