Mumbai For the second time in less than a month, cyber fraudsters created a fake account of Tata Memorial Centre’s director Dr Rajendra Badwe.
Tata Memorial Centre filed a first information report (FIR) with the Bhoiwada police claiming that some unidentified persons created a fake account of its director on an online medical consultation application and duped cancer patients by giving them the doctor’s appointments and accepting money from them. The director currently doesn’t see patients and is mostly involved in administrative work.
Similarly, on April 19, fraudsters created a fake email id under his name and sent emails to his colleagues across the centre, seeking their WhatsApp numbers in order to secure favours from them. The doctor, who was in the US at the time on a work visit, denied sending out any such emails to his colleagues. Upon investigation, it was further found that in September 2020, two fake email ids of Dr Badwe were created by an unknown person.
The latest complaint was lodged by Mahendra Mudgul, who works as a security officer at the Tata Memorial Centre, Parel. On May 11, he approached the Bhoiwada police and complained that they had received two phone calls from patients saying that they had seen the profile of Dr Badwe on an online consultation site and paid ₹800 each for his appointment.
When the hospital authorities searched for the application, Lybrate, they found that somebody made a fake profile of the doctor and offered his appointment on the payment of ₹1200. The patients were given time from 8 am to 3.40 pm.
“Immediately, they contacted Dr Badwe, who informed them that he had not made any such profile on the application Lybrate and that it was a fake profile. We have registered a case under section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000,” said an officer attached to the Bhoiwada police station.
Dr Badwe was not available for comment even after repeated tries.
Earlier in 2019, the doctor and the hospital had to issue a clarification after a fake social media post in the name of the doctor went viral, claiming that cancer can be cured by drinking hot coconut water daily. Although no complaint was filed at the time, the doctor and the hospital had to issue a clarification.