Lucknow, (Samajweekly) A biology teacher in Lucknow, who had posed as a doctor and duped families of Covid patients by promising to set up Intensive Care Units (ICU) at their homes, was arrested after the death of one such patient.
The impersonator, Shahsivendra Patel, was arrested after the wife of the dead patient, P.K. Vashishtha, lodged a complaint.
The police probe revealed the racket Patel had been running by opening up a medical firm and providing treatment through ‘smart clinic’.
He claimed to be its zonal manager and chief marketing officer.
In the second wave of the pandemic, he started duping people by claiming to be a doctor and having a tie-up with a hospital.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), East Zone, Qasim Abidi said Patel used to contact Covid patients seeking medical consultation and treatment at home.
“He teaches biology to students of classes VI to X at a government school in Safdarganj, Barabanki. He used his basic knowledge of medical terms like oxygen saturation, pulse rate, blood pressure and other terms to impress patients and their attendants.
“He even promised to set up a temporary intensive care unit at the residence of Covid patients and used to charge heavy fee for treatment. He used to wear a white apron like doctors but never visited the house of a patient himself. He would send his driver for treatment,” Abidi added.
Patel had treated Vashishta, who died during treatment recently.
The accused started pressuring the deceased’s wife to pay Rs 1.5 lakh as his fee and expenses on treatment but she refused.
Patel started threatening her with dire consequences and the woman complained to police and investigation exposed the racket.
The ADCP said that several other persons are involved in the fraud along with Patel and police are collecting call detail records to identify them.
Sources said that Patel is also suspected to have committed a fraud in the education department earlier and police are looking into his past to trace his crime record.
