How a racket of fake doctor, technician unfolded in Delhi: All details here

Following the death of two patients after alleged botched-up medical procedures, four people, including three doctors and a technician, have been arrested for allegedly performing and allowing surgeries at a clinic in south Delhi without requisite medical degrees.

A police team led by Inspector Ajeet Singh, Station House Officer (SHO), GK Police Station, identified the accused as Dr Neeraj Aggarwal, who runs the Aggarwal Medical Centre in Greater Kailash-1, his wife, Dr Pooja, Dr Jaspreet Singh, and Mahender Singh, a lab technician.

While all three doctors had MBBS degrees, only Dr Jaspreet had a Master of Surgery (MS), the police said, adding that he had never performed a surgical procedure himself and used to create forged surgical notes to validate the procedures.

Besides Mahender, the doctors also used to allow "other inexperienced people" to perform surgeries in lieu of small payments, police claimed.

According to police, Aggarwal used to offer surgeries, including removal of gallbladder stones and neurosurgery, charging patients between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000, with the promise of completing the procedure within 15 to 20 minutes.

Their latest victim was Jai Narayan(44), a resident of Garhi, East of Kailash, who was operated upon at the centre for the removal of his gallbladder stone. He died in October.

However, the lid off the racket was blown by a surgery conducted at the clinic in 2022.

DCP (South) Chandan Choudhary said that on October 10, a complaint was received at the Greater Kailash Police Station from Naseeb Ul Nisha, a resident of Sangam Vihar. The woman alleged that on September 19 last year, she took her husband, Asgar Ali, to Aggarwal Medical Centre at GK-1 for the removal of his gallbladder stone. 

"Before commencement of surgery, the director of the hospital said that the surgery will be conducted by a 'famous surgeon' namely Dr Jaspreet Singh. But right before the surgery, Dr Aggarwal said that Dr Jaspreet Singh will not be able to perform the surgery due to some urgency and now, Dr Mahendra Singh will conduct the surgery," said the DCP.

Dr Aggarwal then introduced the complainant to Mahendra, the lab technician. "…the complainant stated that the surgery of her husband was conducted by Dr Mahender Singh, Dr Neeraj Aggarwal and Dr Pooja," the DCP added.

Police further said that the complainant later found out that "Dr Mahender Singh" was actually a lab technician and that Dr Pooja was also not a qualified surgeon. 

Ali was rushed to the Safdarjung Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. A case under sections for punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and criminal conspiracy was lodged against the accused.

During the investigation, police also found that on the day of Ali's surgery in September last year, Dr Jaspreet Singh was not present at the clinic and was later found to have prepared fake documents regarding the surgery.

According to the police, eight other complaints, dating back to 2016, alleging death by negligence through botched-up surgeries are already pending with the Delhi Medical Council against the centre.
 

(With agency inputs)