New Delhi: Four people posing as doctors have been arrested for performing surgeries at a medical in South Delhi’s posh Greater Kailash area. What’s more shocking is that the patients died due to surgeries performed by these fake doctors. There are two doctors, a woman posing as a surgeon and a laboratory technician. a
Dr Neeraj Agarwal, his wife Pooja Agarwal and Dr Jaspreet Singh were arrested along with former laboratory technician Mahender Singh on Tuesday, the Delhi Police said.
The incident came to light when a woman lodged a police complaint alleging that she took her husband Asgar Ali to Agarwal Medical Centre for the removal of a bladder stone, The New Indian Express reported.
According to the police, a patient, Asghar Ali, was admitted to the clinic in 2022 for gallbladder treatment. Initially, Ali was informed that the surgery would be performed by Dr Jaspreet, a qualified surgeon. However, just before the operation, Dr Jaspreet was replaced by Pooja and Mahendra. After exiting the operating room, Ali reportedly experienced severe pain and was promptly transported to Safdarjung Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
As per Asgar Ali’s autopsy report, the cause of death is a “hemorrhagic shock as a complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy,” TNIE reported.
The patients’ families alleged that Dr Agarwal, who runs the Agarwal Medical Centre, and three others performed surgeries on the vital organs of multiple patients without following established medical protocols. According to the complainants, Dr Agarwal is a physician but performs surgeries as he possesses fake documents, NDTV reported.
An investigation into the case revealed that since 2016, there have been at least nine complaints against Dr Agarwal, Pooja and the Agarwal Medical Centre. According to the police, in all seven cases, patients died due to medical negligence, news agency PTI reported.
“On November 1, a medical board consisting of four doctors was called to examine the medical centre, and a lot of shortcomings and deficiencies were observed,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Chandan Chowdhary remarked, adding that the investigation revealed Agarwal’s habitual practice of falsifying documents related to patients’ treatment and surgery.
Police have seized 414 prescription slips bearing only doctors’ signatures, with ample space left blank at the top, two registers containing patient details for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) procedures performed at the clinic, and a number of prohibited medications and injections that are not authorised for storage outside of hospital settings.
The cops have also recovered expired surgical blades, original prescription slips belonging to numerous patients, checkbooks from 47 different banks, 54 ATM cards from various banks, passbooks from multiple post offices, and six POS terminal credit card machines from Agarwal’s residence and clinic.
