Patna: Authorities in Bihar have fired a doctor after he was found to have performed over 14,000 sterilisation surgeries despite possessing a fake medical degree.

The fake doctor has been in service for the past 16 years during which he worked with various leading organisations.

Dr Girijanand Prasad was removed from his post Sunday after the document accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed he was using the medical registration number of some other doctor to run his medical practice. The accused doctor was currently posted with Marie Stopes India recognised by the Bihar State Health Society, formed under the Department of Health, government of Bihar, to improve health facilities in the state.

“We have removed the doctor from the job with immediate effect and also formed a committee to investigate his fake medical degree and certificate,” an official of Marie Stopes India, Vipin Kumar told the media on Sunday, adding that legal action would be taken against him once they got the probe report.

As per the document accessed under the RTI, the said doctor mentions his medical registration number as 22,492 which had been allotted to some other doctor. “The said registration number as cited by the so-called medical practitioner, as such, been allotted to Dr Pandey Sudhir Kumar. This means his certificate is fake,” remarked Indian Medical Council’s senior vice-president Dr Sunil Kumar Singh. He added no doctors could use his colleague’s registration number to run his medical practice.

The doctor who hails from southern Bihar’s Aurangabad district is said to have performed over 14,000 sterilisation surgeries during his stint with various organisations in the past over a decade.

Reports of doctors allegedly possessing fake medical degrees or certificates, have routinely hit the headlines in Bihar.

Alarmed at the prevailing state of affairs, an Indian parliamentarian Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav has launched a drive against fake doctors and quacks in the state, blaming them for deaths of innocent people in the illegal private clinics flourishing in the country side. Yadav who was declared elected on Rashtriya Janata Dal ticket has been expelled by the party for his anti-party activities.

Yadav launched a massive agitation in Bihar soon after getting elected from northern Bihar’s Madhepura Lok Sabha seat in April-May 2014 general elections. He defeated another mighty backward leader and ruling Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav.

“Fake doctors and quacks operating in the rural parts of the state are playing with the life of the common, poor people and I can’t be a silent spectator to all these happenings,” Yadav said adding people had shown deep trust by electing him and he could not disappoint them.

Last year, Yadav even handed over a list of some 27 fake private clinics and nursing homes operating in his parliamentary constituency to the then Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and also urged the chief minister to crack down on such fake doctors across the state.

“There is total chaos in the medical field as the common man has got caught in the cobwebs of fake doctors, fake pathological centers and brokers,” Yadav mentioned in his letter to the chief minister, adding “just everyone associated with the medical field wants to rob off the common man”.

He also held a “People’s Court” in his parliamentary constituency to seek people’s opinions about how to take on doctors “overcharging” the common man. Earlier, he had fixed a “rate chart” of consultation for the medical practitioners and various pathological tests operating in his Lok Sabha constituency, drawing strong protests from the medical fraternity.

However, his agitation has drawn strong protests from the medical fraternity.