Govt doctor held for writing fraud autopsy reports of dead cancer patients

The Special Task Force (STF) of Haryana Police, on Monday, arrested a doctor of Civil Hospital, Hisar, who helped a state-based gang to dupe insurance firms in the name of terminal cancer patients after misrepresenting their deaths as accidents with the help of fraudulent autopsy reports.

Hindustan Times had exposed the fraud in May this year.

Police said the doctor, Amit Singh, 45, was working at the general hospital in Hisar and was appointed by Haryana Civil Medical Services in September 2015.

A Sonipat court sent Singh in two days police remand for further investigation and recovery of documents and money he had allegedly taken from the kingpin of the Pawan Bhoriya gang.

Deputy superintendent of police (STF) Shamsher Singh said they were tracking the location of his mobile phone for the past one month. Singh had changed his number and was absconding ever since the police busted the racket. “On Monday, we received a tip-off that Singh was going to his house in Hisar. We deployed a team in mufti. The policemen spotted him and arrested him. He was trying to evade arrest and despite repeated reminders to his family to ask him to join investigation he was not cooperating with the police,” the DCP said. He said the doctor was involved in more than 50 cases of fraud. “He charged Rs1.5 lakh for writing each post-mortem report from Pawan Bhoria and his friend Padam Kharb,” the DCP said.

Police said Kharb and Singh had studied together till class 10 and were neighbours.

Inspector general of police (STF) KK Rao said this is the twelfth arrest in the sensational case. Earlier in May, another doctor at the Hisar Civil Hospital, Dr. Ambuj Jain, was arrested for writing fraud post-mortem reports. “The Sonepat district and sessions court turned down Jain’s anticipatory bail plea. He has a bail application in Punjab and Haryana high court. It will be heard on July 11. None of the 11 accused have got bail,” said Rao.

Sanjiv Dwivedi, who heads Investigation and Loss Mitigation at Bajaj Allianz, one of the affected insurance firms, said they had conducted internal investigation and collected evidence where the doctors were found to be hand-in-glove with the gang and prepared wrong post mortem reports.

“When we approached the post mortem department of the hospitals with queries related to deaths in accidents, the doctors refused to entertain us or provide any clarity on the issue,” he said.

The police was no more forthcoming. “They told us it was a hit and run case by an unknown vehicle and there were no eyewitnesses. We had to collect information with the help of private investigators,” Dwivedi said.

The Pawan Bhoriya gang kept a part of the insured sum, between ₹8 and ₹20 lakh in each case, and distributed the rest among its partners in crime: family members, police officers, record keepers, doctors, insurance agents, and public prosecutors. At least 100 people have been accused of being complicit in the scam that allegedly carried on for two years, executed nearly a 100 cases, and cheated more than 25 insurance companies of over ₹100 crore, according to STF.

First Published: Jul 02, 2019 05:02 IST