A quack allegedly running a clinic unauthorisedly at Kadamdarha village in Deogarh district was arrested on Wednesday. Police also seized medicines worth Rs 2 lakh from the clinic.
The fake doctor has been identified as Prashant Ray, a man from West Bengal. He had been running the clinic for four years.
On being informed, a team from Deogarh police station swooped down on the clinic and nabbed the fake doctor.
Further investigation revealed that he would also perform operations at his clinic without any necessary qualifications. He was running the clinic on false certificates.
Informing about the case, Deogarh inspector-in-charge (IIC) Surendra Kumar Nayak said, “During interrogation, he said he has done a six-month course and also produced a certificate to claim his successful completion of the course. Later upon verification, we found that certificate to be a false one. We can say that he was running the clinic as a registered medical practitioner without any valid document.”
The accused fake doctor admitted to having been running the clinic illegally.
“I was running the clinic without any valid document. But I didn’t have medicines worth Rs 2 lakh in my clinic. The medicines I had would be valued at something between Rs 10,000 and Rs12,000. For medicines worth Rs 100, I was asking for Rs 120,” admitted Ray.
It is worth mentioning here that people are still falling prey to quacks in various districts, particularly in tribal-dominated ones. Superstition and lack of medical facilities at doorstep have always been ascribed to this practice.