Top doctors in West Bengal turned out fake; one of them was awarded by India’s President

Zibran Najeer

Saurabh Sharm

Three of the top officials of West Bengal’s flourishing medical fraternity are now among the dozens of doctors arrested for having fake medical degree.

Naren Pandey was a top allergy and asthma specialist practicing at one of the city’s premier hospitals. Shubhendu Bhattacharya was a general medicine expert felicitated by none other than President Pranab Mukherjee in May this year. Aradeep Chatterjee, an MD in integrative oncology was equally sought after and known as much for his flashy lifestyle and his swanky BMW.

Pandey had even failed his Class 12 examination and began his career as a distributor of unani medicines before donning the role of a doctor. Bhattacharya never studied in any recognised medical college while Chatterjee twice dropped out of a homeopathy college.

Police investigations picked up speed after the first arrests and more ‘doctors’ had their skeletons tumbling out of their cupboards. Among them was Gopal Biswas, a dentist in Falakata of Cooch Behar district in north Bengal.

Police estimate the number of fake doctors in the state between 500 and 550. At the heart of the fake medical eco-system are the fake universities and colleges.

“I am the whistleblower and I am coordinating with the CID. We will rid the system of fake practitioners,” said Nirmal Majhi, the chairman of the council and a close aide of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.