A 45-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly impersonating as a doctor and running a clinic for the last three years in Odisha’s Ganjam district, police said on Saturday.
Several medicines and basic medical equipment worth over ₹1 lakh have also been seized during a search operation at the facility in Kumpapada village in Jagannath Prasad block on Thursday, a senior officer said.
“We came to know that his educational qualification is only Class VIII, and impersonated himself as an MBBS doctor,” Jagannath Prasad police station Iinspector Dillip Nayak said.
The man was running the clinic with a four-bed indoor facility for the past three years and was asked to close the unit for some days in 2020 over violation of the COVID guidelines, he said.
The accused used to issue prescriptions to patients in the name of Dr Lal, and had earlier worked as a labourer in a textile mill in Gujarat's Surat, the officer said.
During interrogation, he revealed that he was only dealing with the people who were suffering from minor ailments and had referred several critical patients to hospitals in Berhampur and other cities of the State and Andhra Pradesh, police said.
Everyday, over 100 patients visit his clinic for treatment, sources said.
A case has been registered against him, and further investigation is underway, the officer added.
