Aeronautical engineer, Yoga practitioner turned quacks; arrested in Chennai

Chennai: In two separate incidents reported from Chennai, the Avadi and Taramani police forces have arrested two quacks, an Aeronautical engineer and a yoga practitioner for allegedly running their clinic and prescribing medicines without a medical degree. 

Based on a tip-off, both the accused were remanded in judicial custody after they were arrested on Thursday.

The accused have been identified as a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, running a clinic in Taramani and practised medicine without any medical degree. The other is a 52-year-old yogi, running Girija Clinic in Nethaji Nagar, Ennore, without any authorised medical degree.

The incident came to light after Dr Viswanathan, Joint Director, Directorate of Rural and Medical Health Service filed a complaint with the police against the yogi. The yogi practised allopathic medicine despite a bachelor's degree in naturopathy and yoga.

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After the police received the intel, a surprise inspection was carried out at his clinic which revealed he used the name of his colleague who is a doctor to continue running his clinic. The accused bribed his colleague an amount of Rs 20, 000 every month for using the facilities at the clinic.

The cops discovered his medical degrees to be fraudulent and recovered medicines, syringes, and medical receipts, besides ₹1.14 lakh cash from his clinic. The accused used to purchase siddha and ayurveda medicines under his colleague's name. As a result, he has prescribed medicines to patients for the past 10 years.

After it was revealed that his colleagues were aware of the forgery and allegedly helped him in the process, a case was registered against the accused leading to his arrest.

Meanwhile, Dr Viswanathan has filed a complaint against his colleague to the Tamil Nadu Medical Council and soon action will be taken against her.

On the other hand, another incident was reported from Taramani where a doctor of Thanjavur practising medicine in Delhi found his identity was being used by someone else. Following this, he lodged a complaint at the police station.

According to the complainant, the doctor while trying to renew his registration with the medical council, found that someone had been practising medicine at a clinic in Taramani using his name. The accused downloaded a certificate from a doctor by the same name who had completed a medical degree in Thanjavur and lived in New Delhi, TH reports.

Meanwhile, the police along with the officials of the Tamil Nadu medical council raided his clinic and found his documents to be fake. The investigation revealed that the accused confessed to his crime adding he always wanted to be a doctor though he had completed aeronautical engineering.

According to the police, the accused forged the documents of the doctor and was practising medicine at his clinic for eight years. Moreover, he also had given medicines to several persons during the pandemic.

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