Police crack the whip on quacks

‘Govandi, Mankhurd, Nehru Nagar (Kurla) & Trombay have become home to bogus doctors’

Imagine getting an injection from a carpenter, being medically examined by an electrician and admitted to the emergency ward or the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) by a sweeper. That is precisely what had been happening in Govandi where police have cracked down on people practicing on the basis of fake degrees.

During a raid conducted on Saturday at Sagar Nursing Home on Ahilyabai Chowk, the police found that the hospital was run by quacks. “Sagar Nursing Home didn’t procure the licence, from the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Corporation (BMC), to run the hospital,” said Senior Police Inspector Shivaji Nimhan from Shivaji Nagar police station. He further stated that the nursing home is run by carpenter, electrician, compounder and sweeper. The patients are examined by the carpenter and the electrician who pose as doctors, while the compounder and the sweeper are the Resident Medical Officers (RMOs).

These quacks are illiterates and do not hold any degree or licence to run the hospital. A letter has been sent to the BMC to take legal action against the hospital. The accused Aziz (carpenter), electrician (name still to be identified) and Zora bi (sweeper) are absconding.

In two separate raids on May 9 and May 18, Shivaji Nagar police arrested three quacks whose degrees were found to be fake. The police action came in the wake of reports that Govandi, Mankhurd, Nehru Nagar (Kurla) and Trombay had become home to bogus doctors who ran a flourishing ‘practice’.

Ashok Kumar Jaiswal, 40, and Shivkumar Bairagi, 31, were arrested for running a clinic at Indira Nagar in Mankhurd. The two were charged under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 33 & 36 of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act 1961.

Ramnaresh Panchamrao, 32, was arrested in Mankhurd. He was charged under section 33 of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act 1961. Panchamrao got bail after paying Rs10, 000 surety amount.

Investigating Officer DD Alhat told DNA, “The trio had been running the clinic for the last one year. On being interrogated, the trio claimed that they were not committing any crime, but were doing public service.” He added, “Patients visit such hospitals because the fee here is nominal i.e. Rs 10 to Rs 20. Also if the patients were not cured by them soon, then these quacks told them to get admitted in municipal-run hospitals,” he said.

Alhat surmised that the three may have worked as compounder under a genuine medical practitioner before turning ‘doctors’ themselves. He said stock of tablets, injections and stethoscope had been seized from them. He added a raid will also be conducted on a nursing home which was being run by a carpenter, electrician and a sweeper.

A senior police officer said “it is the duty of the BMC health department to act against the quacks, but they are least bothered.”

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VI) Niket Kaushik has sent a list of 25 such bogus doctors to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and has urged them to verify their credentials.

Kaushik said the police action was based on a number of complaints, but primarily, it devolved on the BMC to bring them to book. 

Dr Jayraj Thaneker, BMC executive health officer, however, differed. “It is for the police to act. We can only check whether the medicines prescribed are authorised.”

When asked whether it wasn’t the BMC that was supposed to check the authenticity of such clinics, Thanekar shot back, “I cannot comment further.”