Om Pal (centre) in the police custody.

MEERUT: Munnabhai MBBS met Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad of ‘3 Idiots’ in UP’s Deoband when police on Monday arrested one Om Pal for fraudulently working at a local CHC as surgeon for the past 10 years by impersonating Dr Rajesh R, who was the real degree holder from Mysore. He was also running a nursing home at the town in Saharanpur district .

According to Saharanpur SP (rural) Vidyasagar Mishra , Om Pal, 50, claimed that he had conducted thousands of ‘operations’ during his free run. He was appointed on contract in the CHC by forging MBBS degree of a Mysore University’s alumnus. His true identity was revealed when he went to police to lodge a complaint after getting an extortion call.

Mishra says that Om Pal worked in early 2000s as a paramedic at the air force base hospital in Mangalore and still gets pension. “A doctor named Rajesh R was working with him in Mangalore. Before Dr Rajesh R moved abroad, Om Pal got his MBBS degree ‘cloned’ after fixing his own photograph.”

He used this fake degree to get himself registered as a medical practitioner in UP. “On the basis of this degree, he not only got a surgeon’s job at Deoband CHC, but also get himself several certificates and diplomas for surgery — two of them from the US,” the SP (rural) said.

On papers he was Dr Rajesh R, but in prescriptions and hoardings he used ‘Dr Rajesh Sharma’, so that the unusual name doesn’t arouse any suspicion at a small place like Deoband, SP Mishra said. His dream run, however, came to an end when he himself went to seek police’s help after getting an extortion call.

The caller was trying to blackmail him by demanding Rs 40 lakh for remaining quiet about Om Pal’s real identity. “But, Om Pal — who was a well-known figure in Deoband — was so confident about his infallibility that he refused to budge and informed police,” says a cop who was part of the probe.

“Interestingly, an inquiry regarding his degrees was conducted by the Health Department a couple of months ago, but since he showed certificate of his registration with the Medical Council of Karnataka and UP, it was assumed that his credentials were genuine,” Mishra says.

However, when our investigation team probing extortion case went to Bengaluru to ascertain the authenticity of his medical degree and registration with the Council, that his real identity came out,” he says, adding “The registration number he claimed was his own belonged to one Rajesh R who was registered with Karnataka Medical Council and had obtained his degree from a medical college in Mysore in 2001. Om Pal even held a certificate of Diplomate of the National Board (DNB) in General Surgery whose registration number was not found in UP Medical Council though claimed in the certificate.”

Om Pal alias Dr Rajesh Sharma was arrested on Monday morning.

