Man poses as doc, govt official to dupe scores

Man poses as doc, govt official to dupe scores

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 08.01.2021

Before being nabbed for swindling people while masquerading as a doctor or an important government official, Devender Mishra used to live an ordinary life in a small town in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. A pathologist by profession, Mishra would collect blood samples by the day and then return home to his wife and two children.

However, Mishra soon got bored of this dull life and came to Delhi to make it big. In 2008, he opened a sample collection centre in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, said additional commissioner (crime) Shibesh Singh. But his business failed and he had to shut shop. Refusing to accept the fact that he might have to go home, Mishra decided to take to crime.

Police said that his first target was a friend, who had approached him to help him acquire an arms licence. The accused claimed that he called up the office of district magistrate of Aligarh and got it done. He then took to duping people full time.

“He started off by posing as a doctor and opened a clinic at Lakhimpur Kheri, UP in 2016 in the name of ‘Shraddha Mother & Child’ where he posed as assistant professor, paediatrics, AIIMS,” said DCP (crime) Bhisham Singh.

He also claimed to be a MD in Paediatrics and Cardiology and a visiting faculty at Army Hospital, Delhi Cantonment, the DCP added.

In the last four years, Mishra donned many roles,police say. When he was not playing a doctor, he was posing as an advisor at Niti Aayog or a joint secretary at the health ministry who helped his acquaintances by pretending to call government officials to get a job done.

With all his avatars, police said that the accused duped many but his life of crime ended after the Crime Branch got a tip-off about his activities. On January 5, the cops laid a trap in central Delhi and arrested Mishra after an informer spotted and identified him. His mobile phones and his collection of fake ID cards describing his various roles were seized.

Police raided his hideout in Dasna, Ghaziabad and also seized Rs 68,000 in cash. He was booked for impersonation and forgery, etc under the IPC and produced before the court.

DIFFERENT HUES: The accused, Devender Mishra, opened a clinic in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 posing as an assistant professor of paediatrics, AIIMS

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THOUSAND RUPEES SEIZED FROM ACCUSED