Gujarat: Racket Offering Fake Medical Degrees Busted, Class 8 Passouts Among List Of 'Doctors'; 14 Arrested

A gang in Surat, Gujarat, offering fake medical degrees for Rs 70,000 each, even to individuals with as little as a Class 8 education, has been dismantled.

The police uncovered a database of 1,200 counterfeit degrees and arrested 14 fake doctors who had purchased these qualifications.

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The primary suspect, Dr. Ramesh Gujarati, was also taken into custody.

According to police, the accused issued degrees under the name of the "Board of Electro Homoeopathic Medicine (BEHM) Gujarat." During the operation, authorities seized hundreds of applications, certificates, and stamps.

The police were tipped off about three individuals practising allopathy using fake doctorates. Raids on their clinics, conducted jointly with the revenue department, revealed degrees issued by BEHM. However, officers confirmed that these qualifications were fraudulent as the Gujarat government does not authorise such degrees.

Investigations revealed that the accused registered these degrees on a counterfeit website.

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Police stated, "The main accused discovered there were no regulations surrounding electro-homoeopathy in India and devised a plan to create a board to offer degrees in this field."

He recruited five people, trained them in electro-homoeopathy within three years, and taught them how to prescribe related medicines.

When the fake doctors realised public scepticism towards electro-homoeopathy, they altered their strategy. They began offering degrees purportedly issued by the Gujarat Ayush Ministry, falsely claiming that BEHM was affiliated with the state government.

The gang charged Rs 70,000 per degree, provided training, and assured recipients they could practise allopathy, homoeopathy, and Aarogya medicine without issue.

Certificates were issued within 15 days of payment and required annual renewal for a fee of Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000. Police added, "Doctors unable to pay the renewal fees were threatened by the gang."

Two of the accused, Shobhit and Irfan, were also involved in financial misappropriation, according to police.