In just three months, police in Cachar district, Assam, have arrested 17 individuals posing as doctors — raising concerns over healthcare safety and the growth of medical-fraud networks.
What the Crackdown Reveals
- The arrests were made between August and early November 2025 in Cachar district, with two more individuals booked in the latest operation.
- The accused were found practicing medicine without recognised qualifications, running illegal clinics or pharmacies, issuing prescriptions, and using fake credentials.
- Police say the crackdown uncovered a larger network of fake degrees, unrecognised medical institutions and a nexus supplying certificates to quacks.
Why Cachar Became a Hotspot
- The rural and semi-urban nature of the region, with tea-garden populations and limited access to qualified medical professionals, appears to be exploited by fake practitioners.
- Many fake doctors adopted titles like “specialist”, “gastroenterologist” or “diabetologist”, claimed MBBS/MD/DM degrees and posted themselves at clinics or pharmacies
- Unrecognised institutions operating in the region reportedly issued bogus medical degrees. One man who ran such an institute was alleged to be the chief of a fake degree racket
Real Risks, Real People
- Patients treated by unqualified doctors face heightened risks of misdiagnosis, incorrect prescriptions, procedural errors and lack of standard of care.
- The trust in local medical systems gets eroded when hospitals and clinics get tainted by such malpractice.
- Medical professionals and associations in Assam have called the situation “a public-health threat”.
What’s Being Done & What Needs to Happen
Actions in progress:
- The state has formed an Anti-Quackery & Vigilance Unit under the Assam Council of Medical Registration (ACMR) to investigate and register fake practitioners.
- The Cachar Police have set up a special helpline for people to report fake doctors.
Needed Steps :
- Public awareness campaigns — educating patients to check credentials of doctors and clinics.
- Stringent monitoring of medical colleges and institutions issuing degrees, especially in vulnerable areas.
- Regular inspections of rural clinics and pharmacies, with surprise audits of qualifications.
- Legal action against networks producing fake credentials, not just individual practitioners
