Gujarat finds 38 bogus doctors in 15-day drive, FIRs against 35

A fortnight-long statewide crackdown in Gujarat has turned up 38 people suspected of practising medicine without valid qualifications, and police have registered cases against 35 of them. Health Minister Praful Pansheriya shared the numbers on Tuesday.

The exercise ran across the state with 298 teams drawn from the Health Department and the police. Crime Branch and Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel were part of the teams.

Rajkot accounted for the most FIRs at 17, followed by Surat with nine. Gir Somnath had three, Surendranagar two, and four other districts one each.

Pansheriya said the drive will not stop with the festival season.

The government, he said, is determined that no one without proper qualifications is allowed to put lives at risk by treating patients.

Surat has seen several raids in recent weeks. On October 29, police and health officials raided clinics in the Dindoli area and picked up nine people who had no recognised medical degree.

Police said some of them were making Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500 a day.

In September, eight people were arrested in Pandesara in a similar action by the Surat SOG.

The problem is not new. Officials have said that of 2,724 complaints about bogus doctors received between 2021 and 2023, 169 people were found to hold fake degrees and 154 FIRs were registered. Earlier cases in Surat also involved a racket that sold electro-homoeopathy degrees for Rs 70,000 each.