Inspiration from a Bollywood film and enticement of a luxurious lifestyle drove the 29-year-old man, who was arrested for allegedly cheating patients at Ganga Ram Hospital here posing as a doctor, police said today.
During interrogation, accused Rohit Kumar, a native of Meerut in UP, who had also worked as a wardboy at a hospital there, told police that he came to Delhi after he lost his job, said a police official.
"He further disclosed that he is in habit of living a luxurious lifestyle and was inspired by the movie 'Munna Bhai MBBS'. In order to live lavishly, he started to cheat innocent patients and their attendants on the pretext of facilitating them like getting various expensive tests in prestigious hospitals at below half the hospital rates. He was fascinated by the profession of doctor," police said.
He wandered around prominent private hospitals in the city and after a few days he took it as an opportunity to earn quick bucks. With whatever knowledge of medicine he possessed, Kumar started pretending to be a doctor and targeted mostly the poor and illiterate people, said police.
He was arrested yesterday, on being identified with the help of CCTV footage, four days after he allegedly duped a family of Rs 8,000 on the pretext of MRI reports.
It was the security guard of the hospital who called up the police and handed over the accused, said police.
Kumar has been booked for cheating and impersonating under relevant sections of IPC, said DCP (Central) Parmaditya.
Police also recovered a stethoscope, two surgical gloves, two surgical masks and an expensive wrist watch from Kumar's possession, said police.
Col M S Jaswal, additional director (administration) and head of security at Ganga Ram hospital said the victim family gave them a complaint, following which the authorities collected CCTV footage and the accused was spotted. His image was then circulated among all security personnel.
"When checked with counterparts from other hospitals and it was found that the same person had cheated other families in a similar manner in other prominent hospitals too," he added.
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