The Karnataka High Court has urged the state government to frame regulatory measures to check the growing pseudo-therapists and 'Instagram influencers' online.
The High Court rejected a petition by one of these 'influencers' seeking to quash a criminal case against her, saying social media has many such therapists. In reality, they are not governed by ethics or norms. These types of cases have been emerging in large proportions in which people wishing to receive therapy fall victim to pseudo-therapists.
A single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna observed, "It is in the public domain that there are huge mushrooming of so-called therapies and therapists on social media i.e., Instagram, Twitter or Facebook as the case would be, wherein therapists pose themselves to be in the field of any therapy. It is also in the public domain that they are all pseudo-therapists who are "Instagram influencers".
"There are a huge number of such therapists in the public domain. On social media, they pose as if they are in the field of therapy. It is also in the public domain that they are pseudo-therapists who are Instagram influencers, the court said, reported news agency PTI.
Justice M Nagaprasanna was hearing a criminal petition by Sanjana Fernandes aka Raveera, a 28-year-old resident of Bengaluru. A complaint was filed against her by Shankar Ganesh PJ. She has been accused of cheating under the Indian Penal Code and several sections of the Information Technology Act.
As per the prosecution, Raveera met the complainant through the dating app Tinder. In response to his stress, she directed him to her Instagram page 'Positive For A 360 Life', where she claimed to be a wellness therapist.
After attending her online classes during the coronavirus pandemic, the complainant transferred around Rs 3.15 lakh to her. He wanted to meet the therapist personally and started sending her messages. But, he was eventually blocked by her.
He later found out that she had 15 profiles on Instagram and other social media platforms and and filed a cheating complaint against her.
In her petition before the High Court, Raveera alleged that the complainant was sending her lewd messages and dirty requests. Raveera said he falsely charged her after she resisted.
The court noted that the claims made by the accused about the therapy were unfounded. According to the court, "it is her own generated web page, without any qualification. Therefore, it is a case wherein the petitioner without any substance or qualification lured customers into the web of wellness therapy through the web page."
Regarding Raveeera’s claims, the court said that the "chats will reveal that the petitioner had initially represented herself as a wellness therapist and that her team will take care of the complainant. Therefore, without having any team or any qualification whatsoever, it was the web page that was created to lure the complainant and the like. It is, therefore, the offence of cheating comes clearly made out against the petitioner."
The court said she had filed a case against Ganesh for the lewd messages which was also pending. Dismissing her petition, the High Court, in its judgement on September 2, said, "I do not find any warrant to interfere with the case on hand as the petitioner has not demonstrated by production of such unimpeachable evidence of sterling character for this court to interfere or interject the proceedings.”
(Inputs from PTI)
