Fake doctor row: police probe N. John Camm’s ‘forged’ documents; NHRC on ‘malpractice’ by hospital

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| Photo Credit: Reuters

“A court in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district on Tuesday (April 8, 2025) granted five days of police remand to Narendra John Camm, even as multiple teams continue to investigate the allegations of him posing as a doctor at a local hospital and performed various heart surgeries that led to multiple deaths,” officers said. 

Speaking to The Hindu, Damoh Additional Superintendent of Police Sandeep Mishra said that the investigating team is currently interrogating the accused, Narendra John Camm, in detail and trying to verify his alleged involvement in the complaints received so far. 

At around 1.45 a.m. on Tuesday (April 8, 2025), a team arrived in Damoh after arresting the accused from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, after which he was presented before the district court in Damoh. 

Mr. John Camm is accused of posing as a doctor at Damoh’s Mission Hospital and performing crucial surgeries like angioplasty and angiography and causing seven deaths. An FIR was filed against him on Sunday (April 6, 2025) night based on a report from a probe committee, which Damoh Collector Sudhir Kochhar had constituted after the first complaint was received against him in February. 

Damoh SP, City, Abhishek Tiwari said that a team led by Damoh Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr. Mukesh Kumar Jain is contacting the hospital management and staff and the patients allegedly treated by him.

“Whereas the police are currently focusing on the use of forged documents and if he actually stole a doctor’s identity. We will also contact the concerned universities and institutes to get more details on his claims,” he said.

As per the FIR, the police and the CMHO-headed committee’s preliminary investigation have found his documents to be “forged” and have details like registration numbers “missing” from them.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team that has been camping in Damoh since Monday (April 7, 2025) is probing multiple aspects involving alleged malpractices at the hospital and district medical administration. 

NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo, who had first tweeted about the case on April 4, told The Hindu that the hospital had been able to “obtain a licence to perform angioplasty without having a permanent cardiologist” even before Mr. John Camm came to work there. 

“They did not have a cardiologist before that. It appears that they were given the licence without much verification by the CMHO’s office. Our team is looking into more such malpractices and if anyone from the administration was helping them,” he said. 

Mr. Kanoongo also said that that the team is also looking into the “foreign funding that the hospital has been receiving”.

“They receive heavy amounts of foreign funding, so they seem to have gotten expensive machines to justify the funding. And to continue the funding, they were working as a charitable hospital but were also receiving money under the Ayushmaan Bharat Scheme and were also charging patients,” he claimed, raising suspicions on the police investigation and the FIR. 

“The FIR was filed after midnight in a haste on CMHO’s complaint. Even then, they have only added charges of forgery and cheating. This means that the FIR has been filed on the hospital’s behalf,” he said. 

CMHO Dr. Jain did not respond to The Hindu’s calls, while Mission Hospital manager Pushpa Khare was unavailable at the moment.