Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Hotel Woodlands, Mangaluru on Saturday evening at 5pm, Professor Narendra Nayak — President, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, Mangaluru said, “An entity called “Smart Brainy” has been running a racket called as WBDP or whole brain development program in which they are allegedly balancing the activities of both sides of the brain. This is supposed to work only on children between the ages of 6 to 16! They claim to increase the memory power, intelligence and also guide the future career of the child by what they call as DMIT. "Smart Brainy" is located near Shree Mahalingeshwara Temple, Puttur. The temple has claimed to be a franchisee of Efficient Brainy, which is allegedly a franchiser having hundreds of branches.”
Prof. Nayak further added, "Since both of these are frauds, we had lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district and he had instructed the DDPI to investigate the allegations. The report of the same investigation is ready and has been submitted yesterday, and action will be taken soon on our request. The number of experts and activists in the field who had visited the premises of the party/academy conducting this activity have proved that this system is nothing but fraud and fake. I have been following on this kind of thing for the last six years, and now such an academy has opened in Puttur. We will see that they don’t continue operations which loot parent’s hard earned money. I call the MD’s/Directors of this Academy cheap, fraud, and neggars? Seeing something blindfolded is nothing but fake and fraud. Even I can play that trick, which I will demonstrate soon. All this time we took this issue on a lighter level, but now, for the first time, we are proceeding through an administrative level. We are confident that this kind of scam and fraud is stopped immediately without any delay”.
A parent named Keshav Murthy from Puttur who had admitted his 9-year-old daughter to this “Smart Brainy Academy-Puttur”, told the media persons, "I think spending Rs 10-12 thousand on this three month course to make your child is not worth because it is all fake and fraud. It’s only a money making business opened by these few people, who are running this franchise without any licence, trademark, or registration, etc. They don’t open their branches in big cities, I or II Tier cities. Instead, they open it in outskirts of cities, or in villages like Puttur, Sullia etc., where they can cheat innocent people.”
“I have seen parents taking a loan, even rickshaw drivers have pledged gold to get loan and send their children for this course. Even the persons who train these children are not experienced, have no knowledge, and they look like they have no brains at all — how can a child learn from such trainers? I am trying to convince other parents not to send their children to such fake academies run by cheaters. This is just wastage of time for children taking up the 3-months course, and wasting their parent’s money. I, along with few other parents who wish to join me, will approach the Consumer’s Court to get my money back, and also see that these people get punished for fooling our children. So beware of such academies, and don’t enroll your children there”.
Dr Madhav Rao, former president of Karnataka Psychiatrists Association; Dr. Raghavendra, the Head of Department of Neurology at Fr Muller Hospital; Dr Varun Pai, a specialist in forensic medicine at Kanachur Hospital, gave their opinion, and also answered many queries about the same. “Illusionist Munna”, a magician from Mangaluru, also demonstrated how he can read while being blindfolded, and proved that Blind Folding reading promoted by Smart Brainy is nothing but a gimmick and fraud. Aboobacker Arlapadau, President of Karnataka State Vijnana Parishat, DK district, was also present on the dais.
While concluding, Prof. Narendra Nayak also said, “Some parents from Puttur who have been cheated by them have also decided to file consumer cases against and have already issued notice to them. The office bearers of Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishat, both past and present, have also played a role in exposing this scam by visiting the premises, along the BEO of Puttur Smt. Sukanya. Junior Shankar of Giligili magic and Dr, Ganesh Prasad have already put forth their opinions that the claims of balancing brains and blindfolded seeing are not supported by any evidence. We have been also informed that the franchiser of this fraudulent scheme, Efficient Brainy, has more than a hundred branches all over Karnataka with thousands of victims of this scam. “
“We herein appeal to the department of public instructions of Karnataka State to take action on this matter to close these down. I along with couple other members will also take a jatha from 30 October across some regions of the state and culminating in Belgaum (where one such academy is situated, and the Director Mallikarjun has challenged me to investigate) about creating awareness about these scams among students and public from Mangaluru to Belgaum where the head office of Efficient Brainy is situated, with programs at some important places on the way ending with a demonstration and press conference there. Many other organisations have agreed to collaborate with us particularly Manva Bandhutva Vedike.