Man held for passing off as doc, entering patient’s ward

Guwahati: A man, who passed off as an assistant professor of neurosurgery using a forged identity card, was apprehended at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) on Thursday morning when he was on a ward visit.
Suspicious of his activities, the attendant of a patient immediately informed the hospital authorities.
The man, who claimed to be Doctor Pranabjyoti Das, was handed over to police later. He has been booked under various IPC charges, including cheating by personation and forgery.
Police said, “The accused confessed that he does not hold any medical degree. The fake identity card, which was recovered from his possession, was forged by him. Interrogation is under way to unearth any other possible suspicious links.”
He will be produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup (Metro) district on Friday.
GMCH principal Achyut Baishya said, “The accused was caught before he could play with the lives of our patients. On Thursday morning, he entered a ward here. But we have no information about whether he had treated patients earlier. He is a fraud.” He, however, added that Das had also tried to hoodwink patients in the past claiming that he had connections with AIIMS.
Meanwhile, Das claimed that he is a regional manager of a pharmaceutical company and not a doctor.
Asked what was he doing in the ward, he said, “A patient had just suffered a haemorrhage. The family told me that the patient was not getting proper care. So I came here to talk to the doctors regarding his health.” He said he had forged the ID card during Covid to enter hospitals. But the hospital authority rubished his claims saying that the identity card was made in 2015, much before the Covid outbreak in the country.