Fake Assam doctor who performed 50 caesarian sections arrested

GUWAHATI The police in southern Assam’s Cachar district have arrested a fake doctor, who performed more than 50 caesarean sections over a decade.

Pulak Malakar, the 43-year-old accused from the adjoining Sribhumi district, practised at a private hospital in Silchar, the Cachar district headquarters. He had built a reputation as an obstetrician and gynaecologist.

The police said Mr. Malakar worked as a fourth-grade employee at various hospitals in Barak Valley, comprising the Cachar, Hailakandi, and Sribhumi districts, before becoming a “doctor” with a fake MBBS certificate.

Cachar’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Numal Mahatta, said the accused was arrested on August 3 and produced before a local court the following day. The court sent him to a six-day police remand.

“We received complaints about the man treating patients by using a fake degree. Investigation revealed that his certificate from a government medical college in Odisha was fake,” Mr Mahatta said.

“We came to know that he was using a fake degree to work as a doctor in Silchar since 2016,” he said, adding that a case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Mr Mahatta said the police have launched an investigation to find out if the racket selling fake MBBS degrees was operating from the Barak Valley.

The Assam government arrested several fake doctors and quacks after forming an Anti-Quackery and Vigilance Cell, which works with the police, in January. The special unit was formed a year after The Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024, was passed in the 126-member State Assembly, criminalising non-scientific magical healing practices conducted by individuals with malicious intent.