Bhopal: New details are emerging about Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav, who posed as a UK-returned cardiologist, as the Damoh Police have found that the Medical Council of India (MCI) had banned him for five years way back in 2014 for professional misconduct.
Arrested Monday from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav alias ‘Dr. N John Camm’ is accused of forging his medical degrees among other charges. He came under the police scanner after the death of seven patients, who underwent surgeries in Damoh’s Mission Hospital in Madhya Pradesh.
The ban on Yadav by the MCI—the erstwhile medical education regulator—came a year after he was booked by Noida Police in a case related to cheating, forgery, dishonesty using fraudulent documents among others on 1 June, 2013, ThePrint has learnt.
The investigation in this case is still pending, the Damoh Police told ThePrint.
At the Mission Hospital, the accused had allegedly carried out the botched surgeries between 1 January and 12 February. ‘N John Camm’ was hired at a salary of Rs 8 lakh a month through a Madhya Pradesh government-registered agency, Integrated Workforce Unique Solution Manpower Limited, based out of Bhopal, according to the hospital administration.
According to the Damoh Police, after his detention on Monday, Yadav confessed to have forged medical degrees to work as a cardiologist at Mission Hospital, only to later retract that he would need “some time to present his true certificates”.
His “documents” show him completing his MBBS degree from North Bengal Medical College in 1996, the police said. In fact, Damoh Medical Officer M.K. Jain has found that the medical registeration issued by the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council to be fraudulent as it did not have any registration number.
Yadav told his interrogators that he briefly worked in Germany’s Klinikum Nuremberg hospital in 2011. During the same period, he returned to India looking for other opportunities to work, when he applied to Noida’s Kailash Hospital as an MD in cardiology. As his MD degree turned out to be fraudulent, he was booked by the Noida Police.
While the accused told the police that he hailed from Kanpur, he has produced an Aadhaar card displaying his residence in Dehradun.
“Since his arrest, he (Yadav) has been changing statements about his education, family, identity, and his association with foreign hospitals,” Damoh Superintendent of Police Shrutkirti Somvanshi told The Print. “We are hoping to get some clarity over the next few days on his past records, his true identity and the extent of his con.”
The police seized a high school marksheet issued in the name of ‘N John Camm’. “The frequent change in statements and even a high school degree in the name of N John Camm makes us wonder if there is actually any person in the name of Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav,” a senior police officer told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, Nabeel Qureshi, whose 64-year-old mother Raisa Bi was operated upon by Yadav and died within minutes of the surgery, is waiting for justice. Qureshi explained that after his mother felt uneasy on 15 January, he rushed her to the Damoh district hospital but was referred to the Mission Hospital instead.
“Even without checking my mother, the staff at Mission Hospital told me that she needed an angiography and angioplasty. We left and sought an opinion from a private doctor. But even after the private doctor asked to get an angiography done, we returned to Mission Hospital,” Qureshi said.
Yadav examined his mother and carried out an angiography but did not give the reports to the family, he said. “We insisted on getting the reports, but were reassured by the staff at Mission Hospital that Dr John Camm had returned from London and carried out many surgeries successfully.”
The next day, the aggrieved man said, his mother died within 30 minutes after she underwent an angioplasty.
“After her death, we were asked to take her body and despite seeking her medical documents, we were made to run for 25 days, as we were told to return a week later each time we went there,” Nabeel said.
Simialrly, Jitendra Rajput had rushed his 63-year-old father Mahendra Singh Rajput to the Mission Hospital after he complained of chest pain. “Soon after reaching there, my father was attended by Dr N John Camm, who rushed him to OT. An hour later, he was brought out and was still alive complaining of difficulty in breathing. He suddenly fell unconscious and was put on a ventilator,” Jitendra told The Print.
His father, Jitendra added, died after they had put on ventilator.
Currently, a panel of medical experts from the Jabalpur Medical College is investigating the extent of medical negligence and Yadav’s role in the seven deaths at Mission Hospital. According to the police, further charges would be added to the FIR based on the findings of the expert panel.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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