india

Updated: Jan 07, 2019 10:17 IST

Two days after a woman died following childbirth at a clinic at Nagoke village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran, police on Sunday arrested the ‘fake doctor’ who conducted the woman’s delivery at the village, 30km from the district headquarters.

As per the health department officials, Gurpreet Kaur, 40, of Bhalaipur village, was taken to a clinic being run by the ‘fake doctor’ by her family members for the delivery on Thursday. The woman, already mother of four girls, gave birth to a baby boy, after which her condition deteriorated. She was then referred to Tarn Taran civil hospital, where she died on Friday.

The accused, Harjinder Singh of Nagoke village, was arrested after the complaint of senior medical officer (SMO) of Miawind, Dr Vimal Vir.

The SMO said, “After the woman’s death, a complaint was submitted by her family members to Tarn Taran deputy commissioner (DC), Pardeep Kumar Sabarwal and civil surgeon Dr Samsher Singh. It was mentioned in the complaint that Gurpreet died due to the negligence by the accused during delivery.”

After arresting the accused, police have seized the tools used for the delivery from his clinic and some intoxicant pills.

As per the SMO, on the basis of the complaint, he got instructions from the civil surgeon to take action. “We conducted a raid at Harjinder’s clinic named Primary Health Care Centre at Nagoke village and found that he was running the clinic without any medical degree and registration number. After finding the clinic illegal, we lodged a complaint with the Varionwal police.”

Sub-inspector (SI), Thamman Singh, who is investigating the case said, “On the SMO’s complaint, we arrested the accused from his clinic and have also seized the tools used during the delivery. Large number of medicines were also seized from there.”

A case under Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 336 B (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 15 (1) (2) of the Indian Medical Council Act (IMCA), 1956, and 22-61-85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was registered against the accused at Vaironwal police station.