2 Doctors face Medical Council Inquiry for allegedly issuing fake life certificates to dead persons
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) has recently issued notices to two doctors for allegedly issuing fake "life certificates" of people who had died earlier.
One of the two doctors is serving as an Assistant Surgeon with the Royapettah Government Hospital, Chennai, whereas the other doctor runs a private clinic in Hosur.
The Tamil Nadu Medical Council president Dr. K. Senthil has issued notices to both the doctors. Dr. Senthil, while speaking to IANS said, "These complaints come under misconduct and are gross violations of TN Medical Council code of ethics (professional etiquettes and ethics)".
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In the case of the Assistant Surgeon, back on January 10, 2018, she had issued the life certificate of a man who had committed suicide in July 2015, reports IANS.
The issue came to light when the wife of the dead person lodged a complaint with the medical council of Tamil Nadu that the property in his name was sold by his relatives two days after the Government doctor issued a "life certificate" for her husband. While his wife was the legal heir, the property was sold by his relatives using the "fake" certificate.
In another incident, a person hailing from Bangalore filed a complaint with the medical council of Tamil Nadu that a doctor who owns a private clinic in Hosur, conspired with one person and issued "life certificates" to two women, a year after the Bruthat Bengaluru Mahanagare Palike (BBMP) issued their death certificates.
While one of those two women passed away on October 16, 2019, her mother died on July 18, 2020. However, according to the complainant, the accused doctor allegedly issued their "life certificates" on September 7, 2020.
The complainant, in the petition, said that the certificates were used for the registration of documents based on a power of attorney.
In his reply to the Medical council, the Hosur-based doctor said that he was cheated and conned by one person who had brought two look-like women to his clinic. He said that due to the pandemic, he was using a face mask and the women were at a distance of six feet. In between, there was a plastic partition and hence he was not able to recognize the women at that distance properly.
He has also urged the council for verifying the authenticity of the BBMP certificates.
Meanwhile, Dr. Senthil said that the Tamil Nadu Medical Council is planning to conduct awareness programs for doctors on such matters of issuing fake "life certificates" to dead people and said that other than losing their license to practice, they may be charged with criminal cases also.
"We want our doctors to know that such things can land them in trouble. They may not only lose their licenses, but may also have criminal charges framed against them," he told TOI.
