Uttarakhand Fake BAMS degrees racket: 22 quacks arrested, 125 more under scanner

Dehradun: Almost 147 cases of fraud have been detected where culprits are posing as ayurvedic practitioners in Uttarakhand. The information came to light after a special investigation team (SIT) of Dehradun police started investigating the Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) doctors practising in the state.

SIT has already arrested 22 culprits for practising without proper qualifications. Many fake BAMS practitioners are running clinics in the state by acquiring fake BAMS certificates. 

According to Dehradun police, almost 500 people are practising as Ayurveda 'doctors' and running health clinics in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh with the help of fake certificates. As per a recent media report Times of India, an SIT member, on condition of anonymity, stated that most of the 147 identified BAMS doctors were "operating in the plain districts of Uttarakhand, including Dehradun, Haridwar and US Nagar." 

This came in connection with a fraud investigation where the police found that the main culprit ran a racket of producing fake BAMS degrees by using the name of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Health Sciences in Bengaluru. The accused is a resident of Muzaffarnagar and he allegedly took approximately Rs 5 lakh to produce one fake degree certificate. According to an official, after receiving their degrees, these scammers registered with the Uttarakhand chapter of the Indian Medical Council (IMC) and began practising medicine as BAMS doctors. 

Previously Medical Dialogues reported that a special investigation team (SIT) of Dehradun police, in its ongoing probe, arrested two more fake Ayurveda practitioners in connection with the fake Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree racket. When Dehradun police detained two fake BAMS practitioners in January, along with his brother, who helped them get hold of the fake degrees. The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) then arrested the accused in Rajasthan and secured over 600 fake medical degrees and related certificates bearing the names of various universities located in five states and one state medical university in Ukraine's Odessa from his residence in UP's Muzaffarnagar.

Regarding the fake Ayurveda doctors practising in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, the official said, “We have found at least 350 such doctors across these three states.” Sarvesh Panwar, Dehradun superintendent of police (crime) and head of the SIT, informed TOI, “Based on the findings of the investigation, we have already established communication with our counterparts in the three states. In Uttarakhand, we have arrested 22 such ‘doctors’ so far, including two on Thursday. Three groups in our SIT are actively working to nab all the remaining suspects.”