The Kuniyamuthur police on Thursday arrested ‘Healer’ Baskar, who claims to offer natural cure for numerous ailments, for seeking to conduct a training programme on normal baby delivery for women later this month. He runs the Coimbatore-based Anatomic Therapy Foundation.
The police action following intervention from the Health Department officials who stepped in against the backdrop of the recent case in Tirupur district wherein a woman died while attempting to deliver her baby based on videos uploaded on YouTube. Mr. Baskar, incidentally, has uploaded numerous videos on YouTube about what he claims to be effective natural remedies for various ailments.
The police said he has been booked under Sections 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC.
The police said that Mr. Baskar had publicised that he would offer a one-day free training programme by “the best counsellors” to ensure normal delivery of babies at home. The advertisements put up by him online defined normal delivery as “giving birth at home, the one free from medicine and tablets, vaccines, scanning, blood tests and doctor’s consultation.”
However, he was collecting money and donations for the ‘training programme’.
Srinivasan, 32, manager of Anatomic Therapy Foundation, was also arrested along with Mr. Baskar. The police said that they would be produced before a magistrate late on Thursday.
‘Misleading propaganda’
P.G. Banumathi, Deputy Director of Health Services, said that the publicity material was misleading as it said that normal delivery had to be done without having ante-natal check-ups.
“This is misleading at a time when the State is striving to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates. So we filed a complaint with the City Police Commissioner after consulting the District Collector,” she said and urged the public to avoid participating in such training programmes. P. Krishna, Joint Director of Medical and Rural Health Services (in-charge), was a joint complainant in the case.
When The Hindu reached the number given in the notice, a person named Sivaraman said that “the event has been cancelled and the same has been notified in the foundation’s website”.
However, he refused to provide the reason for the cancellation of the programme.
