COVID cure claim: Siddha practitioner sent to custody

The Central Crime Branch submitted that Thiruthanikachalam (49) created and circulated videos making false claims that he has found medicine COVID-19. He was also charged of abusing the State and central governments and the World Health Organisation, and ridiculing the procedures prescribed by the government.

The police sought custody, terming it necessary to conduct inquiry into his professional competence and registration of the Siddha hospital he runs. It also submitted the video clip that showed the Chief Minister with Thiruthanikachalam and claimed that the government sent five patients to him, of whom he cured two.

But Thiruthanikachalam countered that the case was foisted on him after he challenged the medical industry. “The video was only to create awareness regarding the available cure and not to create panic or abuse the authorities,” he argued. Accepting the prosecution’s submission, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Roslyn Durai granted six days’ police custody.

Thiruthanikachalam was arrested from Theni on May 6 and was produced before the magistrate court, Egmore, which remanded him in judicial custody.