SLC, Intermediate, MBBS and MD certificates all found to be phony
KATHMANDU, June 25: In an appalling finding, all the educational credentials of one doctor, who claimed to be a specialist, have turned out to be phony.
A joint investigation carried out by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, Nepal Medical Council (NMC) and the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) has found that the SLC, intermediate, MBBS and MD certificates and even the NMC registration of the doctor are fraudulent.
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"The doctor is now in the custody of CIB," a highly placed source at NMC said on condition of anonymity, adding, "He was arrested while at work in his specialist clinic."
The source said that the investigation has focused on the intermediate certificates of doctors who passed from institutions in Bihar, India.
"Some quacks have used fake SLC certificates while other have used fake MBBS and MD certificates," said SP Tarani Lamsal, who is part of the investigation team. He said that CIB will disclose details of the investigation to the court.
Out of 1,000 doctors whose intermediate certificates were probed, the certificates of 109 were not verified by the colleges or universities which they claimed to have enrolled at. Among the 109, police have so far arrested 55. The majority of doctors whose credentials could not be verified are from districts in the tarai.
Some doctors are found to have been from the commerce and humanities background at the intermediate level.
"Majority of the doctors have furnished forged intermediate certificates to pursue their medical education," Dr Dharma Kanta Baskota, chairman of NMC, said. He also informed that some doctors who failed in the SLC were found in possession of fake certificates showing that they were brilliant students scoring first division or distinction. Likewise, doctors who could not score enough marks in +2 to pursue medical education have used counterfeit certificates.
NMC, CIB and HSEB have been investigating the certificates for the last six months.
NMC, which is the national regulatory body for medical doctors, said that Operation Quack is a continuous process and the certificates of all 17,000 doctors who have been provided practicing licenses so far will be probed.
"All the medical degrees of doctors who pursued their medical education with the help of fake intermediate certificates will be invalidated," Dr Baskota said. He, however, added that the final decision regarding the fate of these doctors will be determined by the courts.
