Fake Doctor gets 29 Months in Jail for Impersonation at Rourkela Hospital

Rourkela: A 54-year-old man who impersonated a qualified medical practitioner using forged documents at Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) was sentenced to 29 months of rigorous imprisonment by a local court on Monday. 

The accused, a Class XII pass-out from Jharkhand, had been posing as Dr. Ramesh Chandra Jha to secure employment at the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) dialysis centre. He managed to secure the job through Rahi Care Dialysis, a Chandigarh-based outsourcing firm.

Medical Dialogues had previously reported that a quack working as a medical officer at Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) in Odisha, hired through an outsourcing agency, has been arrested for forgery and impersonation. This marks the third instance of his apprehension on similar charges.

Also Read: Class XII pass man held for posing as doctor at Rourkela Hospital

The fraud was uncovered when the man attempted to secure a personal loan of ₹16.53 lakh from a private non-banking financial company. During the document verification process, the financial institution discovered that the man had submitted medical certificates belonging to Dr. Jha, but with his own photograph pasted onto them.

Following the discovery, the finance company lodged a formal complaint with the Raghunathpalli police on June 26, 2024. The man was subsequently arrested under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including those related to forgery, cheating, and impersonation.

Two days later, on June 28, the area manager of Rahi Care Dialysis, Mayur Agarwal, filed a separate complaint revealing that the man had been drawing a regular salary from the firm while posing as a qualified doctor.

Also Read: 5 private hospitals under scrutiny for employing unqualified doctors for licenses

This was not his first brush with the law. He had previously been convicted in April 2022 for a similar case of medical impersonation at the Nuagaon Primary Health Centre (PHC), where he worked from 2016 to 2019. In that case, the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Sundargarh, had sentenced him to two years of rigorous imprisonment.