After 17 years practice, quack arrested in Guwahati

Guwahati: In a crackdown against quackery in Assam, a fake doctor was arrested on Monday for allegedly cheating patients by practising without having a valid medical degree in the Jyotikuchi neighbourhood of Guwahati for the past 17 years.

A senior police officer said that the arrested person allegedly treated patients at his fictitious clinic 'Charu Lakshmi Ayush Medical Pharmacy' at Shankar Hotel in the Jyotikuchi area.

The Medical Association of Assam had lodged a complaint against the fake doctor, following which a police team raided his chamber and found that he was operating the chamber without a valid license.

Apart from this, the police also discovered that the accused was running a fake pharmacy along with the chamber which was not registered with the government.

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The incident came to light after a doctor filed an FIR at the Fatasil police station against the accused in June this year accusing him of defrauding the patients by presenting as an MBBS-trained doctor.

Following this, the police started investigating the matter and verified the details of the accused person with the Assam Council of Medical Registration. According to the reports collected from the council, it was found that the registration number, which he was using is registered in someone else’s name.

As a result, he was arrested under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property),419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating),471 (Using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to the police, they seized several objectionable documents from his chamber and later produced him at the chief judicial magistrate’s court after a medical examination. He is currently in police custody.

The complainant of the case, Abhijit Neog, informed TOI, "The accused worked as an employee in a pharmacy in the city. I had received information about this person practising with fake qualifications. The registration number, 4386 that this fake doctor was using is registered in the name of Mythili Miss Kalathar of Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, in the year 1967, which can be easily checked on the National Medical Commission’s website.”

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