With the arrest of 13 accused, including 10 fake doctors, the Electro-Homeopathy Medicine and Surgery (BEMS) degree fraud in Surat has been busted, police said on Thursday. The quacks, who allegedly run clinics at various places, have been booked under the Gujarat Medical Practitioners Act (GMPA).
Authorities have recovered a list of degrees supplied by the main conspirators. Allopathic and homeopathic medicines, injections, syrup bottles and certificates have been recovered from the clinic of the accused.
“The three accused were selling fake BEMS degrees for around Rs 70,000. They have been identified as Surat resident Rasesh Gujarati, Ahmedabad resident BK Rawat and their aide Irfan Syed. Our preliminary investigation revealed that Gujarati and Rawat were running the racket under the guise of ‘Board of Electro Homeopathic Medicine, Ahmedabad’,” a police statement said. ‘Both the accused have sold such certificates to nearly 1,500 people. Some of them are only 10th class pass,’ he added.
Acting on a tip-off, Pandesara police conducted surprise checks at various medical clinics in Bamroli area, sources said.
Officials have discovered that three fake doctors were running clinics in different places and giving allopathic medicine. They were booked under Sections 30 and 33 of the Gujarat Medical Practitioners Act.
According to the police, among those arrested were Dr. Shashikant Mohto (45), a resident of Begusarai in Bihar, Siddharth Debnath (38) and Partha Debnath (28) of Nadia district in West Bengal, who were running clinics in different areas of Pandesara.
During investigation, the trio revealed that they had obtained fake degrees for Rs 75,000 from Rashesh Gujarati, who ran a voluntary organization Govind Prabha Aayog Sankul and a college at Gopipura in Surat, officials said. Police raided Gujarati’s residence and seized seven blank degree certificates, five printed degree certificates, renewal forms and application forms.
Police have arrested Rasesh Gujarati and his accomplice Irfan Syed. After taking a preliminary statement from both, the police conducted a check at the premises linked to Dr BK Rawat in Ahmedabad. 10 blank degrees, 30 printed degrees, 160 application forms, 12 identity cards and names of 1,250 people who took fake degrees have been recovered.
The accused have been prosecuted under the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure.
DCP Zone 4 Vijay Singh Gurjar said, “The fake degree racket was run by Rashesh Gujarati, Dr BK Rawat, Irfan Syed and Dr Shobit Singh Thakur. Dr Thakur is currently in the custody of the Surat Crime Branch in another case.
“They were selling degree certificates for 75,000 rupees to candidates who only wanted to pass class 10. They also assured the applicants that they would be available on phone in case of any problems and would be present in person if needed.
Apart from selling fake medical degrees, Gurjar added, “The accused were running two modules.
“In the first module, they have charged Rs 1,500 as a registration fee and Rs 1,500 as an association membership fee from those with fake degrees. In the second module, they were taking Rs 5,000 per month from doctors who were earning well in their clinic. If the doctor did not pay the amount, Irfan and Rashesh would go to their place and threaten to raid. Rashesh Gujarati has been running the operation since 2002.
“Rashesh kept 70 percent of the total amount received from the application and handed over the remaining 30 percent to Dr. BK Rawat.”
The police on Thursday evening arrested seven more people who had obtained degrees from Rashesh Gujarati and booked them under the Gujarat Medical Practitioners Act.
They have been identified as Rakesh Patel. Amin Khan, Shamim Ansari; Syed Abubakar; Mohammad Ismail Shaikh; Tabriz Syed and Rahul Rajput. DCP Gurjar added, “We have started a search for other doctors practicing in low-income slums, and they will be arrested soon.”