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Sion hospital doctor, associate arrested in second cheating case
manish
manish.pathak@htlive.com
Mumbai Sion police have again arrested Dr Rakesh Verma, the assistant dean of the Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital at Sion, and his associate Rajesh Guha, in connection with a second cheating case lodged against him. The two men are accused of taking ₹18.50 lakh from a Hyderabad-based doctor for allegedly securing a postgraduate (PG) medical seat for him.
The third accused, Pankaj Dubey, who allegedly approached the complainant and took ₹15 lakh as advance, is on the run.
“Both the accused were in judicial custody, and after the second FIR (first information report) was registered against them, we made the arrests again on Tuesday. They were produced in the court and remanded in police custody till Saturday,” said inspector Dilip Ghuge from Sion police station.
Sion hospital dean Dr Mohan Joshi said, “I am not aware about the second case registered against Dr Verma or about his second arrest.”
Verma and Guha were arrested last December for allegedly taking ₹50 lakh from a Pune-based doctor after promising to secure a PG medical seat for her.
After Dr Verma’s first arrest, Dr Joshi had said that he could not comment anything much as the police inquiry was ongoing.
According to the police, the 36-year-old complainant from Hyderabad received a call from Dubey in August 2020, offering him a seat for a PG medical course. When the complainant expressed his wish to pursue the Master of Surgery in Orthopaedics course from Mumbai, Dubey informed him that there were seats available, for which he will have to pay a donation of ₹1.40 crore. The complainant refused to do so.
Some days later, Dubey again contacted the complainant and offered him a seat in exchange for ₹90 lakh. Following negotiations, the amount was brought down to ₹70 lakh, which were to be paid in instalments, said a police officer.
The complainant then came to Mumbai on August 20, 2020. Dubey sent Guha to meet the complainant. They met outside Sion hospital, and Guha also introduced the complainant to Dr Verma, who had collected his National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) score card and other necessary certificates, said the police.
The complainant claimed that he then paid ₹18.50 lakh to Guha and Dubey but did not get an admission till November. The two accused also stopped taking his calls. The complainant then approached Sion police on February 4 this year.
