Quack dupes woman in Gurugram, makes 132 cuts on her body, charges her ₹7 lakh

The woman was approached by a man at a mall in DLF Phase 1 who put her in touch with a quack doctor to help treat her vitiligo condition

A man posing as a Unani practitioner made 132 incisions and pricks on a woman’s body to treat vitiligo and charged her ₹7.9 lakh for the procedure in Gurugram, police officers aware of the matter said on Friday, adding that the woman’s wounds developed an infection afterwards. Investigators said they have booked the suspect under cheating and common intention sections and are ascertaining whether he was a quack doctor or an impostor posing as a Unani practitioner.

The suspect has been booked under cheating and common intention sections, said investigators. (Representational image)

The woman, Meetu Thakur, 45, a resident of Sector 21 who suffers from vitiligo, told the police that she was at a mall in DLF Phase 1 on July 21 when a man approached her and said to her that his mother, too, suffered from vitiligo and that a doctor in Ahmedabad, a Unani practitioner, had cured her, said investigators. The man offered to put Thakur in touch with the doctor, and the two exchanged phone numbers.

On August 13, Thakur received a call from a woman who said she was the mother of the man who had met her at the DLF mall and had been cured of vitiligo.

On August 14, Thakur contacted the quack doctor and called him to her home. The suspect told her he would make incisions or pricks on her body to treat her and charge ₹6,000 per incision or prick.

Over the next few hours, the suspect made 132 incisions and pricks on her body and then presented her with a bill of ₹7.92 lakh. When she protested that the bill was too much, the suspect told her that he has had patients who have paid up to ₹40 lakh for his treatment. After bargaining, the suspect gave her a discount of ₹2,000.

“Thakur sent a relative to a bank in Sector 23 to transfer the amount to the suspect. Then, ₹7.88 lakh was transferred via RTGS to an account whose details were provided by the suspect, and the rest was transferred online,” said a police officer associated with the case.

Later in the evening, Thakur developed severe pain, following which she contacted the suspect. The suspect prescribed an ointment, but when her pain didn’t subside by the next morning, she called him again. However, his phone was switched off. The woman then called the man she had met at the mall, but his number was switched off. She tried to call the woman who had phoned her on August 13, but hers was also switched off.

The woman then sent one of her relatives to Ahmedabad to check out the clinic on VP Mehta Road, where the quack said he had a practice but found no clinic there.

The woman then contacted the bank and sought their help in getting back her money, but they told her that the account she had transferred the ₹7.88 lakh to belonged to an autorickshaw driver. The woman then approached the police.

Based on Thakur’s complaint dated August 18, a first information report was registered after a preliminary inquiry on Thursday at Palam Vihar police station under sections 34 (common intention) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

Inspector Deepak Kumar, station house officer of Palam Vihar police station, said they were attempting to track down the suspects.