8 quacks held for duping man

Eight persons posing as Ayurvedic doctors were arrested on Sunday after a 58-year-old man, earlier this week, complained to the Mumbai Crime Branch that they had conned patients in Mumbai and Thane of lakhs of rupees by offering fake treatments.

The arrested accused — identified as Govind Vargatte, Suresh Lokhande, Nitin Dhanavade, Sunil Jagtap, Laxman Dasarjogi, Bhujang Dasarjogi, Shriram Gudil and Anil Shirke — have a dispensary of their own in Naupada.

Police officials said that the complainant is retired, and was very worried about his 19-year-old daughter who suffers from seizures. Though she was being treated at Bombay Hospital, she was not keeping well. Meanwhile, he met a taxi driver named Rakesh Shinde who suggested Ayurvedic treatment from a Thane-based hospital and provided the number of a person.

According to officials, “The elderly person then went to their dispensary in Thane name ‘Gajanan Ayurvedic’. At that time, Doctor Dhanavade did a check-up of the girl and prescribed some powders and honey to be bought from a medical store. The girl’s father bought all the powders suggested and gave them to Doctor Dhanavade. After an hour, Doctor Jagtap came and handed over medicines to the girl’s father, asking for Rs 9.39 lakh. The father was shocked and asked why they were demanding such a big amount. The doctors then explained that they used gold powder in the medicines which cost lakhs of rupees. The father went to a bank and withdrew Rs 12,000 which he gave them.”

Later, he gave the accused over Rs 70,000. A few inquiries about these doctors made the elderly man smell a rat and he lodged a case with the police, following which the accused were arrested.

The arrested accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and under relevant sections of the Maharashtra Medical Act.