Police also on lookout for middleman who arranged for ambulance. (Representational Image) Police also on lookout for middleman who arranged for ambulance. (Representational Image) The Kolkata Police have arrested the owner and the manager of a nursing home in Burdwan for their alleged role in providing an ambulance in which an AC mechanic “posed” as a doctor to accompany a 16-year-old on a 100-km trip to a Kolkata hospital. The teenager, Arijit Das, died during the transit on Thursday — a mishap his relatives attributed to the absence of a real doctor in the vehicle. On Saturday night, owner Animesh Mallick and manager Sheikh Rahul Islam were arrested after interrogation. Police are also looking for Viki, a middleman who allegedly arranged for the ambulance. Officers of East Jadavpur police station had on Friday arrested “fake doctor” Sheikh Sarfarajuddin (25) and ambulance driver Tarapada Sha (26) on the basis of a complaint filed by Ranjit Das, the deceased’s father. The two have been booked under sections 304A (death by negligence), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and fraud), 506(II) (criminal intimidation), 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC. Das was a candidate for the Class X board exams that began on March 11. He was admitted to Annapurna Nursing Home, Burdwan on March 15 with high fever and back pain after being referred from Rampurhat Sadar Hospital in Birbhum. Despite treatment, his condition did not improve, and his family tried to shift him to a super-speciality private hospital in Kolkata. According to the complaint, the authorities of Annapurna Nursing Home allegedly arranged for an ICU ambulance which was staffed by the alleged fake doctor and the driver. During the journey, the patient’s condition deteriorated allegedly due to an insufficient life support system and negligence of the ambulance staff. “I can’t understand why the nursing home passed off an AC mechanic as a doctor. I have lost my only son and want the culprits to be punished,” said Ranjit Das, who is also a homeopathy doctor. The family members told reporters on Friday that they became suspicious when they saw the driver, and not the “doctor”, trying to fix the oxygen cylinder when the apparatus allegedly broke down during the transit. “We will investigate whether the nursing home was at fault. If they were guilty, steps will be taken against them,” said Pranab Roy, the chief medical officer in East Burdwan. According to the deceased’s family, the charges for the ambulance was Rs 16,000, half of which was the doctor’s fees. Fake doctors have become a menace in the state recently, with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) finding more than 500 fake doctors after the state government launched an exercise to weed them out last year. For all the latest Kolkata News, download Indian Express App

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