A case has been registered against four persons for allegedly cheating a homeopath in Gujarat’s Mehsana who paid Rs 16.32 lakh to get admission to a medical course in Uttar Pradesh but received a fake degree instead.
The complainant is Suresh Patel, 41, who holds a Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) degree and works at a private hospital in Nandasan village.
After Patel related what happened to him to the Nandasan police, they registered a case under sections 406 (breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) on June 14.
The police have named Dr Premkumar Rajput, a resident of Nainital, Dr Shaukat Khan of Moradabad, and south Delhi residents Arun Kumar and Anand Kumar, as accused in the first information report (FIR).
Fake website?
As per the FIR, in 2018, Patel saw a website offering admission to an MBBS course at Bundelkhand University in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. He called Dr Rajput, whose number was given on the website, to get more details. After several conversations over the phone, he agreed to pay the fees.
The accused told Patel that he would earn a degree from Bundelkhand University after completing the five-and-a-half-year course. Patel was ready to leave his job and move to UP for studies.
He deposited Rs 16.32 lakh in different bank accounts provided by the accused between July 2018 and March 2019. They assured him that the course would commence soon. However, Dr Rajput and others could not be contacted – their phones were switched off soon after, the FIR stated.
In March 2019, Patel received a courier at his workplace and he found mark sheets, a degree certificate with training and registration certificates in his name. The certificates had registration numbers issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Gujarat Medical Council.
The MCI and the university administration later confirmed that the documents were fake. In 2019, Patel gave an application to the Mehsana police about the cheating case. A police team and Patel reached Sangam Vihar in south Delhi to trace one of the accused, but someone else was living at that address.
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