Mumbai: A fraudster impersonating a doctor from Santacruz's V. N. Desai Hospital has allegedly duped a pharmaceutical businessman from Sion of ₹5.66 lakh by placing medicine orders and handing over bounced cheques. The Sion Police have registered a case against the impersonator, who identified himself as Dr. Dipanshu Verma, and his accomplice, an autorickshaw driver.
According to the FIR, the complainant, Nilesh Shivprasad Singh, 40, a resident of Bhayandar (West), Thane, owns Kalyan Pharma, a wholesale and retail medical store located on Laxmibai Kelkar Road in Sion East, Mumbai.
On April 30, Singh received a call from a man claiming to be Dr. Dipanshu Verma, a doctor at V. N. Desai Hospital. The caller placed an order for two types of medicines worth ₹1.53 lakh and sent a confirmation message on WhatsApp, instructing that the order be delivered urgently to the hospital.
Singh sent his employee, Sachin Yadav, to deliver the medicines. Upon reaching near the hospital, Yadav contacted the alleged Dr. Varma, who added a third person into a conference call, identifying him as his rickshaw driver. The driver collected the medicines from Yadav, and handed over a cheque from Punjab National Bank for ₹1.53 lakh.
On May 1 was a bank holiday, Singh could not deposit the cheque immediately. On May 1 and 2, the same impersonator placed two more orders, which were also delivered via the same rickshaw driver, who handed over two more cheques — one from Punjab National Bank and the other from Canara Bank.
Singh deposited all three cheques on May 2, in his HDFC Bank account, but they bounced—two due to a blocked account and the third due to insufficient funds. Singh then attempted to contact Dr. Verma, but his phone was switched off.
Suspicious, Singh visited V. N. Desai Hospital to verify the doctor's credentials and discovered that no such doctor was employed there. Realizing the scam, he lodged a complaint with the Sion Police Station.
The police have filed a case under Section 66(D) of the Information Technology (IT) Act and Sections 3(5) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). An investigation is underway to trace the accused and his accomplice.
