Maharashtra: 57 fake doctors treated patients for 4 years
What's the story
In a shocking development, 57 doctors have been nabbed by the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) for submitting fake Post Graduation degrees from the same medical college in a bid to get registration from the council. Interestingly, all the doctors procured degrees from the College of Physicians & Surgeons (CPS) in Mumbai and were from the same batch of 2014-15. Here's more about this.
Details
Former student involved in getting fake certificates
MMC has revoked the doctors' practising license and an FIR was also filed in October 2018. According to the police, a former student of CPS, Dr. Snehal Nyati, has been arrested for extorting around Rs. 3-5 lakh from every student to give them fake college degrees in return. He assured them of a degree even if they failed their exams.
Scam
Scam first came to light in 2016 in Jalgaon district
Notably, in 2016, a police station in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district had asked the CPS to verify a student's degree. In response, the college informed them that the certificate hasn't been issued by them and is fake. The police then wrote to the MMC about the fake certificate and directed the council to verify the degrees of all the students registered for the year.
MMC's take
MMC said all certificates appeared to be original
Thereafter, an internal probe was conducted and it was revealed that 78 of the applications received for the year 2014 and 2015 were fake. However, MMC, in its defense, said that all the certificates appeared to be original, and thus, the council went ahead and issued a license to the doctors. It added that they did not have the "expertise" to investigate.
Quote
'We don't have the expertise to investigate this'
"From where the certificates have come that cannot be investigated by us. We don't have the expertise to investigate this. So we have asked the police to carry out necessary investigations and find out from where these students procured the certificates," MMC asserted.
CPS's take
CPS says Council is supposed to cross-check certificates with college
Meanwhile, CPS said that there's a lot of difference between the original and fake certificates and the certificates didn't appear to be original. President of CPS, Dr. Girish Mainderkar, explained that the MMC is supposed to verify every certificate with the college before issuing licenses. "They have to cross check before they get students enrolled as a specialist doctor in the field," he said.
Nyati's take
Nyati says he's a scapegoat in scandal committed by CPS
Separately, Nyati alleged that he has become the victim of a larger conspiracy at play, orchestrated by the top officials of the college. A statement of Nyati reads, "Dr. Snehal Nyati stated that he has been unnecessarily framed in this alleged CPS degree scandal. He has been made a scapegoat by the CPS committee just to protect Mainderkar and his team members."
Blame game
Accused doctors blaming MMC, CPS for ruining their careers
Mainderkar has, however, denied Nyati's allegations. Meanwhile, the accused doctors are pointing fingers at both the institutions (MMC and CPS) for ruining their careers. Till now, 78 such doctors have been identified who submitted fake degree certificates in order to get themselves registered with the MMC. They practised for around three-four years before they were identified.