Agarwal Medical Centre case in Delhi: Doctor worked at Safdarjung Hospital

Neeraj Agarwal, his wife Pooja Agarwal and lab technician Mahender Singh were arrested in 2023 after an FIR was filed against his facility

The main accused in the Agarwal Medical Centre case, Neeraj Agarwal, pursued his MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) from University of Delhi and graduated in 1999. Then he completed his MD (Doctor of Medicine) in general medicine in 2003 before starting work at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where he claims that he still consults, police said.

Neeraj Agarwal.

Agarwal, along with his wife Pooja Agarwal and lab technician Mahender Singh were arrested in 2023 after an FIR was filed against his medical facility, Agarwal Medical Centre in cases involving deaths of 15 people. Now out on bail, Agarwal has not only reopened the facility, but also allegedly opened up a second centre, Life Line Hospital in Kalkaji and returned to practising medicine there, according to visits by HT.

His name, as listed on a board in Life Line Hospital mentions, “MBBS, MD (Safdarjung Hospital)”.

According to police, he started Agarwal Medical Centre under his own practice in 2006 on the ground floor of his Greater Kailash property in E-Block. The property was initially in his mother’s name and was later transferred under his own name. Agarwal lives with his wife, parents and a teenage son on the first floor of the same property.

When asked on Sunday, Agarwal said that he was allowed to practice medicine and the hospital was being run by his father. “The lease is in my name but we have rented the premises to my father and he is running the hospital” he said.

Police said the first complaint received against him was by Shashi Bhushan in 2011. Bhushan accused that he was forced by Agarwal to put a white coat and pose as a doctor before prospective patients if he wanted his pregnant wife to be treated. Police said Bhushan had called his wife from Motihari in Bihar and she was admitted to Agarwal Medical Centre.

After the arrest in November 2023, investigation revealed that Agarwal’s 78-year-old mother is a gynaecologist and his 80-year-old father DC Agarwal is an anesthetist. His sister is also a gynaecologist, working at a noted government hospital.

Police said that Neeraj and Pooja, in 2023, had at least three properties worth ₹80-100 crore — two in Greater Kailash and one in CR Park. They also own two luxury cars.

Between the time that he started the clinic and his arrest, police and Delhi Medical Council received multiple complaints against Agarwal. Complainants claimed that he allegedly had around 20 marketing managers who handed out posters to multiple people who seamed to be capable of pretending to have medical skills and running small clinics in densely populated areas like the narrow streets of Dakshinpuri and Sangam Vihar.

Some of the incidents leading to complaints at the centre include the damage of a 27-year-old woman’s uterus due to an infection after delivery in 2020, the death of a 27-year-old man due to an infection in a chin implant surgery in 2019, and two women dying due to negligence in two separate surgeries in 2018 and 2016.