New Delhi: A senior cardiologist in Uttar Pradesh has been arrested for endangering the lives of nearly 200 patients, whom he implanted with substandard pacemakers while charging for expensive ones that were MRI-proof.
The doctor, Sameer Sarraf, at Saifai’s UP University of Medical Sciences, charged patients for the high-grade MRI safe pacemakers – which cost up to Rs 2 lakh – while actually putting devices that could fail if the patient went under a scanner. The low-quality devices cost up to Rs 80,000, the police said.
The police also said some of the patients had reportedly died due to this malpractice.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Saifai, Nagendra Kumar Chaubey said the doctor was put under surveillance following a complaint in February 2022 by the university’s Medical Superintendent Dr Adesh Kumar.
Dr Sarraf’s expensive lifestyle and unapproved foreign trips also came under scrutiny during the probe, the police said. Sarraf, an assistant professor in the university, was arrested on Tuesday.
Senior Superintendent of Police of Etawah Sanjay Kumar Verma ordered the arrest, telling ThePrint that Sarraf was previously censured by the university for making arbitrary purchases, unnecessary foreign trips, suspected pacemaker fraud and corruption that cost the administration lakhs of rupees.
Verma said the police filed a criminal complaint against the doctor for corruption and fraud. During investigation, the charges of document forgery, forgery with the intent of cheating and using forged documents were added.
Chaubey said the university had also conducted an internal inquiry into the corruption in 2022, and filed an FIR on the basis of their findings.
A patient initially alerted the university of Sarraf’s malpractice, the police said.
Claiming this to be a deep-rooted nexus continuing for many years, Chaubey said Sarraf’s association with representatives of pacemaker manufacturers was also being investigated. He did not rule out more arrests.