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Karkala: A man was allegedly cheated of more than Rs 12 lakh after being promised a cure for illness through Ayurvedic treatment in Karkala rural police station limits.

Ronald Rodrigues (68), a resident of Belman village, is the complainant. His wife Rosy was suffering from cancer and paralysis. On March 23, when Ronald had taken her to a hospital in Manipal for physiotherapy, he came in contact with a man named Siddarth, who claimed to be from near a temple in Kadiyali.

Siddarth told him that his mother had suffered from a similar illness and had recovered. He then shared the mobile number of a person named Madhav for treatment. Ronald was asked to transfer money in stages towards treatment expenses.

Following the instructions, Ronald transferred money through Google Pay to a bank account belonging to Anil Pawar. He also withdrew Rs 40,000 from an ATM the same evening and handed it over directly to Siddarth.

Later, the accused called him to an Ayurvedic shop in Udupi for further discussions and introduced another person named Anil. Believing their claims and demands for medicines, Ronald issued four separate cheques from his HDFC Bank account, amounting to Rs 10,80,000.

However, there was no improvement in his wife’s health after taking the medicines. When Ronald tried to contact the accused, their mobile phones were found switched off.

Based on his complaint that he was cheated of a total of Rs 12,09,160 under the pretext of treatment, a case has been registered at Karkala Rural Police Station. Investigation is underway.