2017 news bulletin on fake doctors' arrest in West Bengal shared as 'new scam'

What is the claim?

A video report by news channel NDTV is being shared online to claim that recently ‘560 fake medical degrees' were sold in Kolkata, the capital of the Eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The report also claims that several 'fake doctors' have been arrested from top hospitals in the state. The video shows visuals of 'fake doctors' being arrested from big Kolkata hospitals such as Kothari Hospital and Bellevue Clinic in Kolkata. It further mentions that one person in the city of Barasat sold ‘560 fake medical degrees', while one of the 'fake doctors' also allegedly received an award from the President of India. 

Multiple social media users shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "After fake teachers, now fake doctors alert 🚨 Almost 560 fake medical degrees sold in Kolkata and fake doctors arrested from top hospitals like Bellevue,Kothari etc. one of them even received president's award. Kolkata is the new cr!me hub of the country (sic)." Archived versions of this post and others making similar claims can be viewed here, here, and here.

Screenshots of some of the viral social media posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The posts are being shared in light of the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) that surfaced a few months ago and are being investigated. However, the incident and the arrests mentioned in the report date back to 2017 and are not recent.

What did we find?

After conducting a reverse image search on one of the keyframes of the viral clip, we found that the video report was originally published on June 9, 2017, on NDTV's YouTube channel (archived here).

According to NDTV, six alleged fake doctors were arrested in West Bengal within one month, and a person named Ramesh Chandra Baidya from Barasat was arrested for selling 560 fake medical degrees. Furthermore, large quantities of spurious medicines were also seized from the Hooghly district of the state.

The Hindu on June 7, 2017, had reported  that the Crime Investigation Department (CID) West Bengal arrested six 'fake doctors' from West Bengal, including one Ajay Tiwary and Naren Pandey who were attached to two renowned private hospitals in Kolkata. The daily reported that CID West Bengal had also identified over 500 fake doctors practicing in government hospitals and private clinics in the state. The investigative agency said around seven to eight 'fake' institutes were involved in the racket.

On June 3, 2017, The Indian Express had reported that a doctor named Subhendu Bhattacharya who was awarded by then President Pranab Mukherjee was arrested by Howrah Police for his alleged involvement in procuring fake degrees.  He was under CID surveillance and was caught by local police after he allegedly used a fake registration number and degree.

CID West Bengal had posted on X (archive here) on June 4, 2017, that Ajay Tiwary was arrested from Kolkata in the matter as well. The post read, "One more fake medical doctor Ajay Tiwary arrested from Kolkata. So far six persons have been arrested. Gathered details about many more."

A 'fake' doctor was last arrested in West Bengal in 2022. The Telegraph reported on November 7, 2022, that the police arrested a 'fake doctor' named Somnath Bhattacharya from South 24-Parganas who posed as a gynecologist. The report said that the police found that the MBBS and MS degrees, which he used on his prescriptions, were 'fake.' The accused was a resident of Howrah. 

There are no recent reports of such arrests of 'fake doctors' in Bengal.

West Bengal SSC recruitment scam

On April 22, the Kolkata High Court invalidated the 2016 recruitment panel set up by the West Bengal SSC and nullified nearly 24,000 appointments made by it. The SSC was responsible for the selection process for assistant teachers for classes 9 to 12 and non-teaching staff; however, there are allegations that some of these jobs were secured through illegal means.

The Supreme Court (SC) stayed the Calcutta High Court order on May 7, granting protection to the 23,123 teaching and non-teaching staff from immediate termination but allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to continue its inquiry. 

The viral video is being shared to insinuate that a fresh "scam" involving doctors was unearthed in the state soon after irregularities in teacher recruitment came to light.

The verdict

An old video showing the arrest of 'fake doctors' in Kolkata in 2017 is being incorrectly shared as a recent incident. The video was originally published by NDTV on June 9, 2017. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.