Dr John Camm arrested: How Rs 8-lakh-a-month ‘UK doctor’ fooled hospitals and vanished - 'No records exist'

Fake cardiologist Dr John Camm

A man claiming to be a renowned UK-based cardiologist was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj after a shocking fraud was reported at Damoh’s Mission Hospital. The accused, who went by the name Dr Narendra John Camm, was hired in January with a handsome salary of Rs 8 lakh per month but quietly resigned and vanished by mid-February, raising serious suspicions.

Authorities now believe the man may in fact be Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav, who allegedly assumed the identity of a UK-based medical professional. The arrest follows an FIR filed on April 5 by Damoh Chief Health Medical Officer (CHMO) Dr MK Jain, after the Child Welfare Committee flagged claims that at least seven patients may have died under the accused’s care.

Medical credentials under question

Superintendent of Police Shrut Kirti Somavanshi confirmed that the suspect’s MBBS degree and Medical Council registration appear fraudulent. “No records of a Dr Narendra John Camm or Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav exist with any Indian medical authority. Both the hospital and the hiring agency failed to verify his documents,” Somavanshi said.

The accused has been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Madhya Pradesh Ayurvigyan Parishad Adhiniyam, 1987. Police say they tracked his movements over the past six months and arrested him based on intelligence gathered from associates.

Initial investigations suggest that Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav has a history of medical malpractice and fraud. In 2014, the then Union Health Minister reportedly named Yadav among 50 doctors barred from practice for professional misconduct. In 2019, he was arrested near Chennai after hospital employees accused him of withholding salaries, and he was also allegedly involved in the wrongful confinement of a UK-based critical care expert.

Hospital management under fire

Pushpa Khare, in charge of the Damoh’s Mission Hospital, admitted the situation has left her overwhelmed. “He acted like a senior professor, kept to himself, and performed his duties. We never suspected he was a fake,” she told The Indian Express.

Khare first suspected something was off when a portable echo machine went missing. “I filed a police complaint against him on March 12. He left without saying a word, and a portable echo machine was missing from the hospital,” she claimed.

While denying the claim of seven patient deaths, she acknowledged “two to three deaths” during his tenure and shifted blame to the recruiting agency.

Official probe exposes gaps

Following the revelations, a joint investigation team including CHMO Dr Jain, District Immunisation Officer Dr Vishal Shukla, and District Health Officer Dr Vikrant Singh Chauhan conducted a detailed review and prepared a report.

The report states that the hospital management “provided documents related to Dr Camm’s qualifications, but the investigation team found, at first glance, that these documents did not bear the registration numbers of the Medical Council or universities, which are typically mentioned in all university/Medical Council documents.”

One certificate was allegedly issued by the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council, but Dr Camm’s name does not appear in their official records. Additionally, the doctor had no registration with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council, making his practice in the state illegal under existing regulations.

Link to death of former Chhattisgarh speaker in 2006

The fake cardiologist has also been linked to the 2006 death of former Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Rajendra Prasad Shukla. Back in 2006, Shukla’s death during surgery at a private hospital in Bilaspur had raised suspicions, with the surgeon then suspected of being a fraud.

At the time, Yadav was passed off as a reputed UK-based doctor. An inquiry was ordered then, but no lasting action followed. "We found out even back then that he was not qualified. If the system had acted then, so many innocent lives could have been saved today,” Justice (Retd) Anil Shukla, a family member of the late Speaker said.