Police nab 8 Birgunj doctors under Operation Quack

BIRGUNJ: A police team deployed from the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on Friday arrested eight practicing medical doctors from different health facilities of Birgunj on the charge of using fake academic credentials to obtain professional licences.

The team led by DSP Phiroj Basnet had reached Birgunj yesterday after receiving a tip-off about the practice of "quacks" in the region.

According to police, it is a part of the CIB's Operation Quack, launched some months ago to crack down on fake medical professionals working in various parts of the nation.

The arrestees include Nimesh Raman Pal, Irshad Ul Haqq and Mohammad Rahulla from the National Medical College; Saroj Singh, Kush Raj Giri and Panna Lal Patel from the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital; and Dinesh Sah and Arun Kumar Gupta, who had private clinics in the city.

The detainees were kept at the Parsa District Police Office for some hours before they were sent to the Capital for further investigation*, according to DPO Chief SP Raju Babu Shrestha.

Doctors in protest

Meanwhile, doctors, health workers and pharmacists of the city shut down health facilities and medical stores in what they said the protest against police crackdown.

A large number of doctors and pharmacists reached the DPO and chanted slogans against the police office.

One of the protesters Dr Manoj Gupta from the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital said they were compelled to shut down the services after "police treated doctors as criminals by carrying out raids at hospitals and clinics without any information and arresting them while in practice."

"The doctors could present themselves before police if summoned by a letter," he added.

Patients who had reached the health facilities including the National Medical College and the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital, two major health centres of the  central Tarai, were left unattended to, thanks to the protest.

3 held from Chitwan, Morang each

Meanwhile, three doctors were arrested from Chitwan district today on the same charge.

A team deployed from the Central Investigation Bureau and the District Police Office arrested Rajani Agrawal, Sunil Acharya and Rajan Puri, according to SP Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, Chief of the DPO.

While Agrawal and Acharya were held from a local clinic in Bharatpur-10, Puri was detained from a health camp currently underway in Palungtar of Gorkha district.

Another CIB team nabbed Javed Akhtar Ansari of the Life Guard Hospital, Sanjaya Das for the Koshi Zonal Hospital and Abdul Kalam of the Trauma Centre from Biratnagar of Morang today.

 

(Inputs from the Rastriya Samachar Samiti for updates from Chitwan and Morang)

*Updated