A UP man, who was working as a surgeon at the community health centre (CHC) for more than 10 years, was arrested from Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur district. According to Saharanpur Superintendent Police (SP) Vidyasagar Misra, the accused Om Pal, 50, has claimed that he had conducted thousands of operations during his free run as a surgeon.

Om Pal was appointed on contract basis in the CHC after faking the MBBS degree of a Mysore Universitys alumnus Dr Rajesh R. He was also operating a nursing home in the Saharanpur district. His true identity was exposed when he had gone to the police station to lodge a complaint following an extortion call.

The police official stated that Om Pal worked in early 2000s as a paramedic at the Air Force base hospital in Mangalore and also gets pension from there. They said that a doctor named Rajesh R. was working with him in Mangalore. Dr Rajesh R. shifted abroad and Om Pal got his MBBS degree cloned by fixing his own photograph. He used this fake degree to get himself registered as a medical practitioner in Uttar Pradesh.

On the basis of this degree, Om Pal got a surgeons job at CHC in Deoband and also got himself several certificates and diplomas for surgery - two of them are from the US.

The SP said that on the papers, he was Dr Rajesh R., but his prescriptions and hoardings were used as Dr Rajesh Sharma, hence the unusual name did not stir any suspicion at a small place like Deoband.

Om Pals fraud came to an end when he himself went to seek polices help after getting an extortion call. The caller was blackmailing him by demanding Rs 40 lakh for remaining silent about his real identity. But, Om Pal, a well-known figure in Deoband was very confident about his steadiness that he refused to budge and therefore informed police.

An inquiry regarding his degrees was conducted by the Health Department a couple of months ago as he had shown the certificate of his registration with the Medical Council of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. And it was assumed that his credentials were honest.

The SP said that when the enquiry team investigating the extortion case went to Bengaluru to determine the authenticity of his medical degree and registration with the Council, his real identity was discovered. The registration number which he claimed belonged to one Rajesh R. who was registered with the Karnataka Medical Council and had gained his degree from a medical college in Mysore in 2001.

Om Pal alsohold a certificate of Diplomate of the National Board (DNB) in General Surgery whose registration number was not found in Uttar Pradesh Medical Council and yet he claimed that in the certificate.