Pune: A 34-year-old man who was allegedly duping patients and their kin at hospitals around Pune was arrested by police on Wednesday.
According to the police, the suspect would allegedly impersonate as a doctor and demand money from them on the pretext of performing an emergency treatment or supplying injections for several treatments.
The incident came to light after a team from Bundgarden police station started probing two cases of duping, where patients from Pune based hospital were asked by a caller identifying himself as a doctor. He demanded money on the pretext of buying injections that are not available easily. The caller allegedly called himself as Dr Deshpande and cheated one couple of Rs 20,000 and another patient of Rs 7,000.
In a similar incident, the same suspect duped a woman, who recently delivered twins at a city-based hospital of Rs 27,600 by impersonating as a doctor under the pretext of prescribing injections to her babies.
Police informed, the woman gave birth to twins and the complainant had visited her at the hospital. Recently, the complainant received a call from a person who claimed to be a doctor at the hospital where the woman was admitted. The suspect said that the twins were prematurely born and needed to be immunised with injections for the proper functioning of their lungs. The suspect then asked the complainant to send him money for buying the medication via digital payment application. The woman’s relative paid Rs 26,700 but later realised that it was a fake call and rushed to the police. The woman’s relative lodged an FIR in this case at Samarth police station.
The police started analysing the phone calls made to the relatives of the family and arrested Amit Kamble, a resident of Navi Peth.
According to the police, he has been suspect in at least 21 cases in which he had duped people for demanding money and assuring them to provide injections that are needed at emergency at a lower cost. The fraudster has been booked under relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act and IPC section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property).
