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 thousand 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.



In Video: UP: Police arrest fake doctor in Saharanpur