For nearly five months, 19-year-old Adnan Khurram pretended to be a doctor from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and was seen enthusiastically participating in social events and protests, including the one organised by the resident doctors’ association against the National Medical Commission (NMC) bill.
“I met him for the first time in December when we were planning protests against the NMC bill. He was very active in all our meetings. We welcomed it because most doctors and MBBS students here are usually too tired after study and shifts to participate in volunteer activity,” said Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, president of the resident doctors’ association (RDA) at AIIMS.
Khurram actively participated in all meetings, protests and even a marathon organised by the RDA recently. He also allegedly used his fake RDA credentials to meet VIPs.
“He forced his way to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who came to AIIMS for treatment recently,” said Dr Bhatti.
It was his social participation in so many activities that raised suspicion among other doctors. “We were surprised that he could make it to all the events at AIIMS and even those organised by other medical organisations. He claimed to be a junior resident, who usually end up with 18-20 hour shifts. He used to hang out near the coffee shop or the doctors’ hostel every evening. We started wondering how he had so much time,” said Dr Bhatti.
There are around 2,000 resident doctors at AIIMS at any given time and new batches start twice a year in January and in July, making it difficult for doctors to keep track of each other. “So we decided to be thorough because no one was sure what course he was pursuing or which department he was in, he said different things to different people,” said Dr Bhatti.