An alleged "fraudulent" doctor has been arrested in the city after nearly four decades of practising in Assam and Bengal, where he purportedly "retired" in 2005.
The arrest comes shortly before Gauhati High Court is scheduled to review a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) lodged by a city-based doctor, Abhijit Neog. The PIL calls for the court's intervention in addressing the proliferation of fake doctors in Assam. Neog had filed a First Information Report (FIR) expressing doubts about the credentials of the "doctor" in question on February 4, according to police sources.
Premananda Rai, in his late sixties, was arrested on Tuesday from a pharmacy located under the Odalbakra police outpost in Guwahati, where he had been practising for approximately two years.
Police informed The Telegraph that Rai was detained by a police squad under sub-inspector J.J. Gogoi, with significant support and evidence provided by Neog. Rai was subsequently produced in a Guwahati court, which remanded him to 14 days in judicial custody on Wednesday.
According to Neog, who has aided in the exposure of 32 alleged "fraudulent" doctors, including Rai, in Assam since 2016, discrepancies in Rai's claimed degrees, registration number, prescription errors and dubious death certificates raised suspicions. This prompted Neog to conduct further inquiries, leading to Rai's arrest on Tuesday night.
Neog's investigation revealed that Rai's purported degrees did not exist, and his registration number belonged to one Dr S.N. Sen from Bengal. Moreover, spelling errors and technical inaccuracies in documents, signed by Rai, drew attention to Rai's questionable credentials, causing doubt among local doctors and residents.
The police, prompted by Neog's FIR, launched their investigation, discovering that Rai had acquired a diploma from the Guwahati-based School of General Medical Practice in 1977, an institution not recognised by any statutory body.
Praising the police's proactive approach leading to Rai's arrest, Neog highlighted that Rai could not produce a Diploma in Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGO) mentioned on his letterhead.
Rai, born in 1956 according to his PAN card, worked in tea estates in Assam and Bengal before his purported retirement in 2005.
His family includes a wife and a son engaged in business, according to police sources. The family members claimed that they "all along knew him as a doctor".
Gauhati High Court is set to review Neog's PIL on March 11. The PIL, admitted on May 12, 2023, seeks the establishment of a proper mechanism to verify the qualifications of modern medicine practitioners in Assam and identify those operating without requisite qualifications. The home department has been included as a respondent in the case.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has acknowledged Neog's efforts in exposing alleged fake doctors, presenting him with the IMA's National President's Appreciation Award during its annual conference held in Allahabad on December 27, 2022.
