Fake doctor of 3 years held in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha police on Wednesday arrested a person for allegedly working as a doctor at Nuagaon Primary Health Centre in Sundargarh district for three years by furnishing forged documents. The accused, identified as Padmanavan Mukhi Karwa, was interrogated at the Sundargarh Town police station, following which he was arrested. Padmanavan’s offence came to light after some local residents of Nuagaon got hold of the education certificates of the fake doctor through an RTI(Right to Information). Mukhi was posted at Nuagaon PHC as the medical officer (MO) since 2016 after showing fake MBBS certificate from VIMSAR, Burla.

Sources said, he left his past jobs at hi tech medical college and hospital, railways and Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) after the authorities started to dig through his past suspecting submission of fake certificate.

P.K. Tripathy, the pharmacist posted at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) said, “I observed a lot of mistakes in his prescriptions but never objected him as he was senior to me.”

Commenting on the case, the chief district medical officer of Sundergarh, Dr Saroj Mishra said he has written to VIMSAR authorities to verify credentials of Karwa.

“Though I am new to this district, my initial probe revealed that he was registered with Bihar Medical Council. I have written to both Bihar Medical Council and the VIMSAR authorities to verify the authenticity of his credentials. I’ll be able to comment further once after getting their replies,” said Dr Mishra.

Odisha health minister Nabakishore Das said an inquiry had been ordered to find out how a person without valid documents was appointed as a doctor.

“I have ordered a probe to find out how a doctor was appointed without valid certificates. Whosever will be found responsible for appointing such a fake person  as doctor, will face strong legal action,” said Mr Das.