Kathmandu, June 24

With more doctors being found to be earning medical degrees by submitting forged primary certificates, the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police today said that it was scrutinising the credentials of nearly 18,000 licensed doctors.

So far, the CIB has managed to round up as many 54 such doctors registered with Nepal Medical Council, the sole regulatory body of medical and dental doctors in the country. "The crackdown under 'Operation Quack' is guided by our selfless aim to purge the hospitals of doctors who pursued MBBS or MD using forged certificates. We wish there were no such doctors working in hospitals," said CIB Director DIGP Nawa Raj Silwal.

Many of the doctors, who are secretly dragged into investigation, seems to have obtained bogus certificates of ISc level from Bihar State of India after they failed to secure required marks to study medicine.

Similarly, some have produced forged certificate of the same college where they studied ISc but could not obtain enough marks to be eligible for MBBS study in Nepal, China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

"CIB has already verified the authenticity of educational credentials of more than 1,500 doctors. Of them, nearly 150 persons have been suspected of forging their ISc level certificates. We will gradually bring them to book," said DIGP Silwal.

CIB is coordinating with the NMC and Higher Secondary Education Board to examine the academic certificates of suspects.

Police have charged the recently arrested doctors under ‘Forgery and Fraud’ chapter of Muluki Ain after 13 doctors, who were held during the first phase of crackdown, walked free by posting a meager amount of bail as per the Nepal Medical Council Act, 1964.

The forgery and fraud charges allow the law enforcement agency to investigate whether the accused had amassed property through illegal means taking advantage of what they did earlier.

The Central Investigation Bureau has also appealed to all to lodge complaints if they have fallen victims to doctors in course of receiving medical service in the past.