Indian police arrested a man on Tuesday accused of impersonating a respected London-based cardiologist, days after a probe into the deaths of seven patients.
The alleged scammer, who practised at the private Mission Hospital in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has been charged with cheating and forgery, police superintendent Shrutkirti Somvanshi told reporters.
“His documents have been found to be fake… The accused doctor has been arrested by our team,” Somvanshi said.
The detained man gave his name as “Narendra John Camm”, the same as listed on the hospital’s website, written in Hindi.
A mugshot published in local media showed him with bleached yellow hair.
The arrest came days after the National Human Rights Commission launched a probe into the deaths of seven patients at Mission Hospital this year.
All seven people had undergone angioplasty surgeries by the arrested man.
‘Very disconcerting’ –
Local media said he had impersonated a real cardiologist in Britain called John Camm, an emeritus professor of clinical cardiology at St George’s University of London.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the British-based Camm, who told AFP that the case had been “very disconcerting”.
Camm, said that the man had “claimed at various times to both be me, and to have been trained by me at St George’s Hospital in London”.
Camm said he and colleagues had made repeated efforts to stop the fraudster over the past five years.
“I discovered that there was little that I could do about it, but younger colleagues, who were active on social media on the internet did their best,” Camm wrote from London.
“Indian physicians and cardiologists quickly rumbled that this man has nothing to do with me and attempted to ‘shut him down’.”
Camm said that reports of the fraudster had recently been “relatively quiet, and I thought that they had been successful”.
He said news of the arrest was “upsetting to me and probably much more so to the relatives of patients” who may have suffered.
Rajendra Shukla, Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister, said harsh action would be taken against the detainee if found guilty.
The scandal emerged after the family of one of the patients who died came forward to complain.
“As soon as my mother died, the doctor vanished,” her son Nabi Qureshi was quoted as saying by broadcaster NDTV.
Reports of individuals posing as doctors are rife in India, especially in rural areas where a large population is illiterate.
Authorities have cracked down on fake doctors in recent years, raiding clinics and making arrests.
