Sambalpur: The Town Police on Monday arrested three persons for posing as doctors and cheating thousands of rupees on pretext of providing medicines to an attendant of a cancer patient. The incident, that happened Sunday night, was reported from Sambalpur Sadar Hospital premises.
As per sources, one Jitendra Nayak of Chhendipada area went to a drug store inside the hospital premises to buy medicines for his sister who is diagnosed with cancer.
However, when he was returned citing unavailability of medicine, prime accused Prashant Pradhan approached him and assured him of getting the prescribed medicines. Pradhan then called two other persons over phone and introduced them as doctors.
Believing their version, Jitendra gave them Rs 32,500 as per the prescription given by the two 'fake' doctors.
Jitendra lodged a complaint at the Town Police Station after the three fraudsters did not return with the medicine.
After arresting the trio, police recovered the Rs 32,500 cash and launched an interrogation to find out the actual reason behind the whole episode. Police have also initiated a probe to find out whether there is any involvement of the hospital staff or doctors in this fraud.
"Going by the PS records, it was found that Prashant Pradhan was earlier involved in ganja smuggling and cheating case. He is a habitual offender. We are verifying the CCTV footage near the medicine store. The staff at the medicine store will also be interrogated and further investigation would be based on the CCTV footages," stated Sambalpur SDPO, Bhabani Sankar Udgata.
However, the prime accused refuted the charges and denied his involvement in the case. "I am not lying. I never introduced myself as a doctor. God will not forgive me if I do such things," he said.