In a case of mistaken identity, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police is found to have arrested a real doctor instead of his namesake over possession of fake academic certificate.
The CIB has arrested eight people so far on the charge of producing fake academic certificates as part of its nationwide operation. However, one of them has turned out to be a real doctor.
According to Deputy Inspector General Kuber Kadayat, central spokesperson for Nepal Police, it has emerged that Ranjit Kumar Yadav of Pipra-8, Mahottari, was arrested even though he had submitted genuine academic certificates.
Kadayat attributed the error to two people sharing the same name.
According to Kadayat, the Nepal Medical Council (NMC) had given them the Institute of Medicine (IoM) number and name of Ranjit Yadav and they had no knowledge that there were two people called Ranjit Yadav. Police arrested Ranjit Yadav on the basis of the documents and number provided by the NMC. But upon inquiring again, it was found that the fake doctor called Ranjit Yadav was still out in the open.
He said that the CIB is searching for the fake doctor.
After learning that police had arrested the wrong person, the NMC has written to the CIB that the documents of the Ranjit Kumar Yadav in custody are genuine.
Kadayat said that it turned out to be a different person when they compared the details provided to them against the documents of the arrested person sent by the NMC. There seems to have been a mistake when the NMC sent the IoM number and name, he added.
But the NMC has denied providing wrong details to the police. According to an NMC source, they are studying whether the NMC sent wrong details to the police.
NMC Spokesperson and Registrar Krishna Adhikari said that the mix-up happened because the fake and real doctors have similar details except the father’s name.
According to Adhikari, the person who was arrested studied in Janakpur while the person who should have been arrested studied in Bangladesh but hails from Janakpur. “It was not intentional. The mistake happened as the names are the same. We found out after the family of the arrested person contacted us,” he said.
Adhikari claimed that the NMC had sent the IoM number of the person who should have been arrested.
“The Council had sent the number of the person who should face action. I don’t know where another number came from,” he said.
Adhikari said that they have already asked the person in custody to be released after learning that he was wrongly arrested.
Joint Attorney Achyut Mani Neupane, chief of District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, said that they have already given instruction to release the real doctor. But the arrested Ranjit Yadav has yet to be released.
The Kathmandu District Court has remanded him to custody for seven days for investigation.
The CIB has also arrested Ram Babu Yadav, Erina Shah, Amit Chaudhary, Shraddha Shilpakar, Manit Chaudhary and Punam Thapa on the charge of submitting fake academic certificates.
Police had also arrested Nepali Congress lawmaker Sunil Sharma on the same charge, but he was released on Friday after the Kathmandu District Court ordered the police to continue investigation on Sharma without keeping him in custody.
