Medical degree for Rs 70,000; 10 fake doctors held in Gujarat

A fake Bachelor of Electro-Homeopathy Medicine and Surgery (BEMS) degree racket was busted in Gujarat's Surat with the arrest of 13 people, including 10 bogus doctors, a police official said on Thursday.

Allopathic and homoeopathic medicines, injections, syrup bottles and certificates were found from the "clinics" of the accused, he added.

"Three of the accused were selling bogus BEMS degrees for Rs 70,000. They have been identified as Surat-resident Rasesh Gujarathi, Ahmedabad-resident BK Rawat and their associate Irfan Saiyed. Our preliminary probe has found the racket was being operated by Gujarathi and Rawat under the garb of 'Board of Electro Homeopathic Medicine, Ahmedabad'," a police release said.

"Both the accused have sold such certificates to nearly 1,500 individuals. Some of these are only 10th pass. Gujarathi had started a college in Gopipura area in 2002 and offered a three-year course in Electro Homeopathy. However, he incurred a loss as he failed to find students for the course," the release said.

He then came into contact with Rawat and both started selling the degree for Rs 70,000 to anyone wanting to start their clinic and the duo used to give them degree certificates, marksheet, registration certificates and I-card within one week of admission in the course, the official said.

They used to give assurance to the students that they can practise even allopathy and homeopathy with the help of this degree, he added.

"Rawat also created a website named, www.behmgujarat.com, for the registration of such fake degree holders, who were never given any training or education. Every year, the duo used to collect Rs 3,000 from these quacks in the name of renewal of registration. Saiyed would intimidate those who raised objections about this annual fee of Rs 3,000," the release said.

Police found 10 blank degrees, 30 degrees with names, 160 application forms, 12 ID cards and a register having entries of 1,630 "doctors" who were given such degrees when Rawat's house was raided in Ahmedabad, the release said.