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Four men were arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) officers in Bengaluru for selling fake Ayurvedic medicines to senior citizens across the city.

The CCB sleuths arrested the culprits Virupakshappa (40), Santhosh (30), Deepak (31) and Vinayak (27) from Wilson garden and recovered Rs 6.5 lakh from them. The culprits had opened an Ayurvedic store called Siddhi Ayurveda Medicine there and were selling fraudulent products claiming to be Ayurvedic medicines that can cure diseases like diabetes.

According to reports, the offenders hailed from Gokak taluk of Belagavi. They mostly used to target elder men and women, who used to come to the park for walking and jogging in the morning. They used to introduce themselves as a fellow jogger and then make conversations with people about back problems or joint pains.

The men would make up stories of how their relative or friend had a similar problem and it was cured after taking the medicines from Siddhi Ayurveda Medicine. The people would fall prey to their scam and visit the Ayurvedic centre, where they will be hoaxed to purchase the spurious products.

The arrests were made after a few people complained to the CCB that they were cheated by the Ayurvedic centre as they did not find any relief after taking the medicine. After testing the medicines, the CCB sleuths found that the medicines were fake.

The police suspects many such gangs to be involved in similar crimes. According to them, many are running the scam in several parts of the city and educated people are also falling prey to this.