Mumbai: Mumbai Police crime branch arrested four persons from Rajasthan who posed as high profile Unani Ayurvedic doctors and took lakhs of rupees from patients on the pretext of curing them by sucking impure blood from them.
In one case, a Wadala-based senior citizen paid Rs 14.5 lakh to cure the tremors he felt in his hands only to realise he had been duped. So far, police have found that the accused from Kota in Rajasthan have duped at least seven more persons, all senior citizens suffering from various health ailments.
An officer said the complainant, who has an import export business, suffers from hand tremors. A few months ago, at Nariman Point, three people approached him after seeing his hands tremble.
The accused identified themselves as Rakesh Aggarwal (40), Dr R Patel, (50) and the doctor’s assistant Manish (35). They claimed to be renowned Unani doctors with branches of their hospitals in Gujarat and Rajasthan. They assured him his tremors would go away if they could perform the procedure of sucking blood from his body.
Convinced he called them home and in September, the three of them came to his home. The main accused, posing as Dr Patel, used cylindrical cones and marked out points where he claimed bad blood had accumulated, and made cuts with a blade.
He then kept clumps of Multani Mitti in his mouth and sucked some blood from the complainant’s body and spat it out. He told the complainant that his blood had clotted and showed him the multani mitti clumps as proof. Over a period of time, the accused took Rs 14.5 lakhs in cash from the victim
“The complainant said that owing to very poor health, he believed the accused and paid them exorbitant sums of money. After sometime, he realised his health showed no improvement, and the accused also stopped taking his calls,” the officer said.
The complainant then approached the police following which an FIR was registered at Marine Drive police station. The crime branch began tracking the accused and found out that they were at Malegaon-Nashik, living in clans with other companions, and pitching tents in open fields for two to three months.
Accordingly, the crime branch (unit III) laid a trap at Malegaon, Nashik and arrested Mohammad Khan (49) alias Dr R Patel, Mohammad Nafees Sharif (39), Mohammad Nisar (27), Mohammad Sharif, (44), all from Rajasthan.
