A 34-year-old engineering graduate has been arrested on charges of cheating an individual and several private health sector companies of Rs 36 crore in the last three years.
Police said Budhaditya Chatterjee was earlier attached to more than one private hospital in Kolkata.
Healthcare professional Swarup Ghosh, who filed a complaint at Anandapur police station on June 10, said: “Budhaditya Chatterjee had claimed to be a PhD scholar from Harvard University. He convinced me that I was eligible to become an auditor attached to the Joint Commission International, a body that conducts audits for hospitals. Acting on his insistence, I paid him $25,500 as the examination fee and security deposit.”
Ghosh said he gave Chatterjee money several times in the last three years.
The police said Chatterjee had used Ghosh’s professional contacts to collaborate with several private health sector companies, including diagnostic centres, and convinced them to pay earnest money deposit for government tenders.
“He had also convinced the companies to transfer money to a bank account in the name of ‘Account Controller Government of West Bengal Health and Family Welfare’,” said an officer.
Earlier this year, Ghosh and the diagnostic centres apparently realised that they had been duped. Ghosh alleged that after he received a threat call from Chatterjee in June, he decided to lodge a complaint.
Based on the complaint, the cops initiated a case under the IPC sections of cheating, forgery, fraud and breach of trust. During the investigation, it was found that the account belonged to Chatterjee.
Chatterjee was arrested from the Park Street area on Monday and was produced in a court on Tuesday.