The Central Investigation Bureau on Wednesday filed charge sheets against 12 doctors at the Kathmandu District Court demanding a jail term of three years. The doctors were arrested last month for possessing false academic credentials that were used to obtain medical degrees. 

The CIB has charged the doctors with unethical medical practice and fraud under the Nepal Medical Council (NMC) Act 1964. 

The Clause 27 of the NMC Act on “punishment for using honours relating to medical qualification” bars any person from obtaining any academic credentials with “a motive of carrying out the treatment (medical service) relating to modern medicine”. Anyone found guilty under the charges “shall be punished with an imprisonment up to three years or fined up to Rs 3,000 or both,” the Act states. 

While the doctors were produced before the court on Wednesday, the hearing on the case will begin only on Thursday, the CIB said, adding a government attorney will file the case on behalf of the bureau. CIB spokesperson Superintendent of Police Dibesh Lohani said Binita Yadav of Siraha, who was arrested from College of Medical Sciences in Bharatpur, had fallen ill right after the arrest and is undergoing treatment at the psychiatric unit of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Yadav had possessed a fake higher secondary certificate and had obtained her Bachelor of Dentistry Degree. At the time of arrest, Yadav was a faculty member of the college and was teaching undergraduate students. 

SP Lohani said a charge sheet would be filed against Yadav only after the doctors attending her confirm that her health condition is stable.

Similarly, the case of three other arrestees who were found practicing at government hospitals will be taken up by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority. Tulsi Kumar Mahato of Morang had been working at Koshi Zonal Hospital in Biratnagar; Santosh Kumar Yadav of Mahottari at Janakpur Zonal Hospital in Janakpur and Rajendra Prasad Das at the Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital. 

All of them have either forged school leaving certificates or have obtained a bogus higher secondary degree. Mahato had passed the NMC licensing examination on the ninth attempt, while Santosh had succeeded on the 15 attempt. 

Four of the arrestees had been practicing illegally without the NMC licence—prerequisite for any doctor before starting a medical practice. 

Mohamad Ahmed Sidiqui of Dhanusha had appeared in the NMC licensing exam as many as 29 times. Instead of trying for a 30th time, he started “practicing medicine” without an NMC licence. He was working as a medical officer at Global Hospital in Siraha at the time of arrest. Afjal Husain, who was working at Health Services Clinic in Kapilvastu, had taken the NMC test 19 times. Husain had done his MBBS from Russia. Pashupati Chaudhary of Morang who was working at Pashupati Model Hospital, Itahari, and Kalyan Bishwas of Dhanusha, who was working at Chansi Medical Hall, Janakpur, had appeared in the NMC exam 16 times.