Guwahati: A man who allegedly obtained a medical degree in Ukraine 25 years ago after securing admission to a Ukrainian university using fake Class XII documents and went on to practise as a doctor in Assam for nearly a decade has finally been caught. His alleged fraud has now come to light recently in Assam, leading to the cancellation of his medical registration.Identified as a permanent resident of Guwahati, Pankaj Goelforged Class XII pass certificates purportedly given by the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council and B Borooah College to gain admission to Kharkiv State Medical University, Ukraine, where he studied general medicine from 1995 to 2001. His qualification was MD “Physician”, which is equivalent to MBBS.Goel was earlier convicted by the Delhi High Court in 2017 for using forged Class XII documents to get the medical degree, but at the same time, he also declared before the court that he was no longer practising as a doctor. But in the meantime, Goel already started attempts to manage a registration with the Assam Council of Medical Registration (ACMR) in 2016 by suppressing the facts of the trial and started practising in Tinsukia in Upper Assam as a medicine specialist. This continued for the last 10 years. However, based on a recent public complaint over the credibility of his degree while he was allegedly practising as a medicine specialist in Tinsukia, an inquiry was initiated by the Antiquackery & Vigilance Officer of ACMR, which found that Goel failed the Class XII Examination in 1994 and forged his educational certificates.The Assam State School Education Board, Division-II (formerly Assam Higher Secondary Education Council), has clarified in a letter to the Antiquackery & Vigilance Officer, Assam, Dr Abhijit Neog, who was probing the matter, that Goel’s certificate was counterfeit. A copy of the board’s letter is with TOI. It stated that Goel appeared in the Higher Secondary Examination (Class XII board examination) in 1994 (science stream) under the then AHSEC from B Borooah College but failed.The Assam Council of Medical Registration (ACMR), at its July 7 meeting, after examination of the certified copies of the orders of the High Court of Delhi and Court of Metropolitan Magistrate – Tis Hazari Courts relating to Goel’s conviction and the recent findings/report of the Antiquackery & Vigilance Officer, ACMR, observed: “Pankaj Goel, on the strength of these forged certificates, managed to secure admission to the Faculty of General Medicine of Kharkov/Kharkiv State Medical University, Ukraine, and was enrolled as a student from 1995 to 2001.” “Under these circumstances, the Council has decided to permanently remove the name of Pankaj Goel from the Register of Registered Medical Practitioners, with immediate effect as empowered by Section 23(1) of the Assam Medical Council Act, 1999 (Amended up to date),” read the ACMR order. Goel has been directed to surrender his registration certificate to the ACMR.
