Man held for forging medical papers of inmates of 97 prisoners

AHMEDABAD: Crime branch sleuths arrested Mahesh Rathod, 40, resident of rented premises in Gomtipur, for forging treatment prescriptions and signatures of doctors to enable imprisoned under-trials and convicts to get bail. Rathod used to forge the prescriptions of government hospitals such as VS, UN Mehta and Civil Hospital.
Inspector K G Chaudhary said that after it came to the knowledge of Gujarat high court that 97 interim bail applications were filed with fake treatment papers in 2015-16, the city crime branch had lodged an FIR and initiated a detailed probe.
“The prolice probe revealed that the signatures of doctors and the treatment prescriptions were forged,” the inspector Chaudhary said. “The fact that the treatment prescriptions were in English instead of Gujarati — which is the normal practice — raised suspicion.”
Crime branch officials said that interrogation of the prisoners who had obtained interim bail on such fake papers revealed that the after taking preliminary treatment at certain government hospitals, the prisoners or their relatives used to hand over the the treatment booklets to one Mahesh Rathod.
“It came to light that Rathod himself was a rape accused and lodged in Sabarmati jail for five months before he struck a compromise with the complainant. During his stay in jail, he used to boast about his closeness to certain advocates of Gujarat high court and some high-ranking government officials. He used to promise other prisoners that he could get them out of the jail by securing interim bail for them,” a police official said.
Police said they had found out why Rathod was living in a rented house in Gomtipur area of the city instead of living lavishly. He wanted to keep his identity hidden.
“We arrested him on Wednesday,” inspector Chaudhary said.
“During his interrogation it came to light that after obtaining patient treatment booklets from either the prisoner or their relatives, he used to write a fake prescription on the back page of the booklet and forged signatures of doctors with the help of some of his associates,” the inspector said.
Inspector Chaudhary further said that most of the 97 such interim bail applications were placed before the Gujarat high court by advocate Jignesh Hazare.
“We have summoned advocate Hazare under Section 160 of CrPC for questioning. We are also investigating whether or not more such interim bail applications were filed before the high court,” the inspector said.
Forger charged upto Rs 1 lakh: Cops
Police said that during interrogation it had come to light that Mahesh Rathod used to charge anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh for forging treatment papers of one prisoner depending on his financial condition.