‘Fake’ doctor involved in deaths of 7 death held

Madhya Pradesh Police on Monday arrested a man who is accused of forging his medical degrees operating on patients in a hospital in Damoh district, allegedly leading to the deaths of at least seven people.

The arrest came on a day the police filed a first information report against the man – identified by the police as Narendra John Camm – under sections 318 (cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable securities, wills, and other important documents), 336 (forgery, specifically creating or altering documents or electronic records with the intent to deceive or cause harm) and 340(2) (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and under the MP Ayurvedic Council Act.

Damoh superintendent of police Shrutkirti Somvanshi confirmed the arrest from Prayagraj. “After the registration of the FIR, our cyber team got active as this doctor, who is known as Narendra Yadav or Narendra John Camm, had a habit of running away from one place to another. We got input from cyber team and Damoh police nabbed him from Drona Omaxe township in Prayagraj and he is now being brought to Damoh,” said the SP.

The developments came days after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) initiated a probe into the deaths of seven people at Mission Hospital in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh.

On Sunday night, Damoh chief medical and health officer MK Jain filed a complaint with the police, alleging that “Dr. Narendra John Camm” committed fraud by doing angiography and angioplasty in Mission Hospital without registering with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council. “They didn’t find the registration of Dr. Narendra John Camm on the medical documents, which appears suspicious at first sight. They also found forgery in his degrees,” said Somvanshi.

The matter of the deaths is still being investigated by the district administration and the NHRC, and sections related to the deaths might be added later based on the findings, said the SP.

An investigation team including district vaccination officer Vishal Shukla, district health officer Vikrant Singh Chauhan, and CMHO Jain were formed to investigate the case in Mission Hospital, Damoh, Jain told police. The investigation team was formed on April 5.

In the probe, it was found that some patients died due to angiography and angioplasty done by him, the FIR seen by HT said.

The investigation team did not find Dr. Narendra John Camm in Mission Hospital and the manager told the team that he had left the job, it added.

“The manager provided the documents related to the degree of Dr. Narendra John Camm, in which the investigation team prima facie did not find the registration number of the medical council/ university mentioned in the degrees of the concerned doctor, which is generally mentioned in the documents of all universities and medical councils,” said the FIR.

“The documents presented by Mission Hospital of Dr. Narendra John Camm, his medical registration, certificate has been issued by Andhra Pradesh Medical Council, but till date, the name of Dr. Narendra John Camm is not appearing in the registration on the official website of Andhra Pradesh Medical Council at registration number 153427, due to which the registration of Dr. Narendra John Camm seems suspicious at first sight, and also, without registration in Madhya Pradesh Medical Council, no doctor can provide his services in Madhya Pradesh as per the rules. In this regard, no documents have been provided by Mission Hospital,” the FIR further said.

An NHRC team, comprising commission members Rinkal Kumar, Brajveer Kumar and Rajendra Singh, reached Damoh on Monday to investigate the matter and recorded the statements of the family members of the deceased.

The matter came to light on April 4, when Kanoongo said on social media that seven people had died in Damoh’s Mission Hospital due to a fake doctor.

“’The doctor did surgery (angioplasty) on 15 heart patients in January-February 2025. Out of these, seven patients died. Some relatives contacted us after which I complained to CMHO MK Jain in February. But no action was taken by CMHO so I, along with the victims’ families, filed a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission in March,” said Damoh child welfare committee chairman Deepak Tiwari.

The mission hospital in-charge Pushpa Khare told the CMHO that the doctor was hired through an agency. “The fraud was committed with us as well. We are supporting the administration in the investigation. The doctor Narendra John Camm hails from Uttarakhand and he was appointed through the government authorised -Integrated Workforce Inquiry Solution Private Limited (IWUS) agency. He joined on January 1 and left in February without informing anyone,” she said.

Meanwhile, Pradeep Shukla, the son of former Chhattisgarh assembly speaker Rajendra Prasad Shukla has alleged that the accused performed surgery on his father at a private hospital in Bilaspur in 2006, following which the latter died. “Yadav suggested and performed heart surgery on my father and then he was kept on a ventilator for nearly 18 days before he was declared dead on August 20, 2006,” Pradeep was quoted as saying by PTI.