Ludhiana: Class X pass Quack booked for issuing fake medical certificates

Ludhiana: The owner of Kunal Pal Hospital located in Model Town extension in Ludhiana has been booked after a sting operation exposed his involvement in issuing fake medical certificates in exchange for money by posing as a doctor.  

The operation caught the owner on camera issuing the certificates by forging the signatures of another doctor who was not even employed at the hospital. He charged Rs 10,000 for the fake certificate by posing as a doctor with a minimum qualification of class 10.    

The Model Town police registered an FIR under sections 192 (fabricating false evidence), 193 (false evidence), 197 (prosecution of Judges and public servants), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 34 of National Medical Commission Act against the accused based on a complainant of a local.   

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A resident named Gurjeet Singh of Hawas village conducted the sting operation on August 20, 2023, after receiving tips from others that this hospital was making fake health certificates. 

Intending to expose the scam, the complainant approached the hospital owner and asked for a medical certificate pretending to prove in a Bihar court that he was not fit to travel so that he could miss the court hearing. For this, the accused owner told him that it would cost Rs 10,000. When the complainant agreed, the accused issued the certificate by signing with another doctor's name and attaching someone else’s reports.

After recording the entire fraud, he approached the civil surgeon’s office and submitted the video with a complaint. Acting on the complaint, the civil surgeon, Dr Jasbir Singh Aulakh formed a three-member committee to investigate the matter. 

“The doctor present there made a fake medical certificate for me showing that I had typhoid. He also added some fake test reports with it and took Rs 10,000 from me. I approached the police to file a complaint. However, I was asked to go to the CMO. Thereafter, I lodged a complaint with the CMO who further formed an inquiry committee to probe the matter. I also gave them the video of the doctor who issued that certificate,” Singh told TOI. 

According to the committee findings, the doctor, in whose name the certificate was issued, did not work at the hospital and the owner had impersonated the doctor. He was unaware of the doctor whose name he had used in the fake certificate. The panel discovered the doctor whose name was used was a surgeon working at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).

Meanwhile, the panel also discovered that apart from being a fake doctor, the accused was also running the hospital without a license. He previously enlisted doctors temporarily.

Refuting the evidence presented against him, the accused maintained his innocence and expressed his intention to challenge the FIR. He accused the complainant of attempting to extort money from him, stating that when he refused to comply, the complainant filed a complaint with a manipulated video. He argued that the investigation carried out by the health department was biased, HT reports. 

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