Couple, Nigerians held for passing off wooden chips as herbal medicine

Narcotics wing officials of the Central Crime Branch have arrested a city-based couple and two Nigerians for allegedly duping a businessman by selling painted chips of wood as herbal medicine to cure cancer.

The accused were arrested based on a complaint filed by the victim at Indiranagar police station, who lost Rs. 12 lakh in the deal.

The case was later transferred to CCB, which tracked down the accused through mobile call details and zeroed in on 22-year-old Muralidhar and his wife Revathi, (20) from ITC Road in the city.

Based on their information, the police nabbed Arebamen Abibu Obadan, (35) and Joseph Nnamdi Emeanuwa, (32) of Lagos city of Nigeria, presently staying in Ramamurthy Nagar.

The accused Muralidhar, who works in an LPG distribution company in the city, aloang with Arebamen and Joseph floated an advertisement online posing as executives of pharmaceuticals company in the U.K. and offered to sell at a cheap rate Majhpogha, a herbal medicine, claiming that it could cure cancer.

A senior citizen in Indiranagar fell for their bait and contacted them on phone. The gang clinched a deal to courier the medicine through one of their dealers in Bangalore and extracted Rs. 12 lakh from him.

Muralidhar along with his wife Revathi collected some chips of wood from the graveyard in Ulsoor and dyed them with a hair colour and handed it over to their unsuspecting client in Indiranagar. The accused soon escaped after collecting the amount and even changed the SIM cards.

The couple shared the booty with the duo and had even purchased a car, a motorcycle, home appliances and cosmetics worth Rs. 4 lakh

Meanwhile, the CCB police who are on their lookout, verified the call details of the accused and managed to zero in on them.

Enquiries revealed that Arebamen and Joseph had come to India on student visa and overstayed in the country. “We have seized their passports and further investigations are under way to ascertain whether the gang is involved in similar crimes in the past”, Narcotics wing Inspector A.S. Yelagaiah said .