BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Monday vowed strict action in the case involving a “fake” cardiologist, who is being linked to death of seven patients at a missionary hospital in Damoh district, as police moved against him and filed an FIR. Police registered the First Information Report (FIR) on Sunday midnight against the accused, who went by the name, Dr Narendra John Camm, at the hospital on a complaint by Damoh district’s Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) MK Jain, officials said.
The shocking episode at Damoh Missionary Hospital came to light after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) cited another complaint claiming seven persons died at the medical facility where the “fake” doctor operated on patients in the name of treating heart diseases. As per the complaint lodged with the NHRC by a local resident, the accused, using the name of a famous cardiologist from the UK, ‘Dr N John Camm’, had shown himself to be educated and trained from abroad.
“We are aware of the incident. Our government is taking strict action and is continuously in touch with the central government. I have instructed the MP health department to take strict action against such practises, if any, at other places (as well),” Chief Minister Yadav said. Camm has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 315 (4) (dishonest misappropriation), 338 (forgery), 336 (3) (creating or altering documents or electronic records with fraudulent intent), 340 (2) (forged documents and electronic records) and 3 (5) (joint criminal liability when a criminal act is committed by several persons in furtherance of a common intention).
A team of the NHRC reached Damoh, around 260km from Bhopal, on Monday morning and will camp there till Wednesday to conduct a separate investigation into the matter. Damoh Superintendent of Police (SP) Shrut Kirti Somwanshi told reporters that Camm, who is yet to be arrested, has been booked on forgery and other charges. “On the complaint filed by the CMHO, we have registered the FIR. The complainant (to NHRC) is regarding the deaths of the patients. After the ‘doctor’ is arrested and interrogated, more details will be revealed,” Somwanshi said. District Collector Sudhir Kumar Kochar told reporters that the NHRC team has come to Damoh in connection with the complaint regarding the death of seven patients at the Mission Hospital.
“This (NHRC) team has interacted with us and CMHO. They will talk to the (family of) victims and complainants. They will carry out inquiry till Wednesday,” he said. The NHRC team will share details of their probe with police, Kochar maintained. NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo flagged the use on Friday when he said a case of the untimely death of seven persons has come to light in a missionary hospital in Damoh where a fake doctor was operating on patients in the name of the treatment of heart diseases. According to one of the complaints, the real name of the accused is Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav. He misused the name of UK cardiologist Professor John Camm to mislead patients and they died due to his wrong treatment, the complaint alleged.
In his complaint, CMHO Jain alleged Dr Camm had committed a fraud by performing angiography and angioplasty on patients at the Mission Hospital without being registered with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council. The registration is not displayed on the doctor’s medical documents, which appears to be suspicious prima facie. No doctor can provide services in Madhya Pradesh without registration with the MP Medical Council, the FIR stated.
The complaint alleged between January and February, many patients died due to treatment by an ineligible and unauthorised doctor in the cardiology department of the hospital. The Congress sought to corner the BJP over the “fake” cardiologist and dubbed him as a “favourite” of the ruling party and a “hate-monger”. The opposition party claimed the “fake” doctor was a “habitual hate-monger” who vitiated the atmosphere in the country via social media.
In a video released by the MP Congress, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate showed a photo of the “fake” doctor on a mobile phone and said from the camera angle, his DP and name ‘Professor N John Camm’, people mistook him to be a foreigner. “His actual name was Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav, a Hindustani. He was such a great ‘bhakt’ that he would post worthless things on Twitter (now X) all day and spew venom at the opposition,” she maintained.
“He created an atmosphere of hatred in the country. He was chaheta (favourite) of the BJP. The BJP’s IT cell used to promote him hugely as their hero,” the Congress leader charged. Despite knowing that his degrees were bogus and he was a fake doctor, who gave him permission to practice there? Shrinate asked. When contacted, state BJP spokesman Narendra Saluja insisted the party-led government does not spare wrongdoers.
“Dr Mohan Yadav’s government is in power which does not consider a criminal’s religion, caste, or party while taking action. Action is taken against wrongdoers no matter how influential he or they are,” Saluja averred. Another MP BJP spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, “Already, a case has been registered against the accused. The case is being investigated thoroughly at all levels. No one will be spared.”
“There are crores of people in Bharat who feel like a political party does and like its ideology. But Congress on that basis just can’t link a wrongdoer with our leaders or our party which has cracked a whip on scamesters, criminals, rapists across the country,” he said.
