The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Doctor’ who cheated patients of jewellery in police net

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Doctor’ who cheated patients of jewellery in police net

Staff Reporter

Saleem learnt the cheating technique from
a Hindi film
He fooled not only patients but also the
hospital staff

BANGALORE: He is clean shaven, with an antiseptic air about him. And the stethoscope casually draped around his neck him does not hurt either. He stations himself in scanning labs of prominent hospitals and diagnostic clinics.

When patients enter the labs for tests, he advises them to remove their jewellery and hand them over to him. They comply and when they emerge from the tests, their ailments may not have vanished by the “doctor” has, along with their ornaments.

The fake doctor, 37-year-old Saleem, learnt the technique from the Hindi film Baap Numbri Beta Das Numbri starring Khader Khan and has successfully profited from it for over a decade.

His luck ran out on Monday when he was trying to sell some stolen ornaments. Apparently, he had been arrested before, in 1993, and released in 2000 but resumed his vocation soon enough.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) K.V. Sharat Chandra said this about the Bollywood buff: “He successfully dressed himself as a doctor and fooled not only patients but also the hospital staff.”

Saleem, who has studied only up to the 4th standard, initially did his trial runs in government hospitals before venturing into private ones.

The police said he was operating thus at the Kanva Diagnostic Medical Centre, Kidwai Hospital, St. John’s Hospital, Bangalore Hospital, Sagar Apollo Hospital, St. Philomena Hospital, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, ESI Hospital and St. Marthas Hospitals.

“Some of the cases have not come light as the private hospital managements did not report them but compensated the patients instead,” said a police officer involved in the investigation.

His arrest earlier followed his being caught for cheating patients at the Victoria Hospital, Jayadeva Hospital, Minto Eye Hospital, K.C. General Hospital and Bowring Hospital.

According to Sridevi, a resident of Peenya Dasarahalli, who was one of the victims, she went to St. Martha’s Hospital for a follow-up treatment for a leg fracture on January 24.

“I found him inside the X-ray centre wearing a white coat,” she said. “He gave me a pink gown to wear and asked me to remove my gold necklace and ear studs. Before the technicians could attend to me, he vanished,” she said.

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