Mumbai police book 10 quacks in special drive

The bogus doctors were allegedly operating clinics in areas such as Bhandup, Mankhurd, Kurla, Jogeshwari, Borivali, and Dahisar

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police’s crime branch has booked 10 bogus doctors for allegedly practising medicine without valid medical degrees or registration with the Maharashtra Medical Council, as part of a special drive against unlicensed practitioners.

The bogus doctors were allegedly operating clinics in areas such as Bhandup, Mankhurd, Kurla, Jogeshwari, Borivali, and Dahisar.

The quacks were allegedly operating clinics in areas such as Bhandup, Mankhurd, Kurla, Jogeshwari, Borivali, and Dahisar. The police said they also found expired Unani and Ayurvedic medicines in their clinics, where they were primarily treating people with venereal or sexually transmitted diseases and charging exorbitant fees.

According to an officer aware of the developments, Unit VII of the crime branch had received information about the bogus doctors and subsequently raided several clinics, most of which were located in crowded slum pockets.

The raided clinics include Santosh Health Clinic in Bhandup, run by Shaikh Mohammad Anwar Mohammad Aslam and Mohammad Nabi Hussain Mohammed Farid Shaikh; Vinayak Health Clinic in Bhandup, run by Imran Abdul Jabbar Khan; Humdum Hospital in Jogeshwari, run by Dayashankar Singh and Junaid Siddique of Jogeshwari; Kohinoor Hospital in Jogeshwari, run by Shahbuddin Shaikh; Ankush Ayurvedic Hospital in Borivali, run by Dr Naved Khan and Dr Rashid Beig; Deepak Herbal Healthcare Clinic in Dahisar, run by Rashid Shaikh; and Samarth Ayurvedic Hospital in Mankhurd, run by Nihal Shaikh.

“The doctors were not able to provide us any valid degrees, nor were they registered with the Maharashtra Medical Council,” said a police officer. They were also prescribing and giving allopathic, Unani and Ayurvedic medicines to their patients, charging exorbitant fees, claiming to be specialists in venereal diseases, nocturnal emission, syphilis and sexual diseases, the officer added.

“We have found some expired medicines in their clinics and seized the stock,” said the police officer, adding that the action was taken in coordination with the health officers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The police have registered cases against the quacks under sections 33 and 36 of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961. Section 33 prohibits a person from practising any system of medicine in Maharashtra unless their name is entered in an official, recognised medical register, while section 36 prohibits adding unverified or unauthorised medical titles, descriptions, letters, or abbreviations to a person’s name.