Decade-long hunt ends as Delhi Police nabs fraudster posing as AIIMS doctor in Haridwar

A man who had been on the run for more than a decade in two separate cases of cheating and forgery in Delhi while posing as a doctor from AIIMS was apprehended in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, the Delhi Police said on Friday.

The accused, identified as Raj Kumar Sharma, 52, had been living under a false identity for years and was known locally as ‘Doctor Sahab’, it said. He claimed to be affiliated with AIIMS-Rishikesh and had earned the trust of residents in the area, police said in its official statement.

Sharma was arrested during a late-night operation on the intervening night of June 11 and 12 at his residence in Haridwar.

“Sharma had been absconding in a case registered in 2007 at the Roop Nagar police station, where he was accused of obtaining vehicle loans from government banks using forged documents,” DCP (Crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.

A car financed through fake papers was also recovered from him during the initial investigation. After his release on bail, he failed to appear before the court and was declared a proclaimed offender in December 2016, he added.

In another case registered in 2015 at the Burari police station, Sharma allegedly duped two people of Rs 14.10 lakh by selling them a plot using forged documents, the DCP said.

“To settle the matter, he issued a cheque of Rs 26 lakh from a bank account that had been closed years earlier. When the victims realised they had been cheated, they approached the police,” the officer said.

Under pressure, Sharma vacated his house in Delhi overnight and fled to Uttarakhand. Since then, he changed his identity multiple times, frequently altered his appearance, switched addresses and mobile numbers to stay off the radar, the DCP added.

During interrogation, Sharma told police he originally hails from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and had completed his graduation. He used to publish monthly magazines and newspapers in Burari, Delhi, before turning to fraud, he added.

Police said Sharma has a son pursuing BPharma and a daughter studying law in Haridwar. He currently has no stable income and reportedly depends on ancestral agricultural land for sustenance.