Man dupes elderly couple of Rs 2 lakh

Kolkata: An elderly couple, who recently visited the SSKM Hospital for treatment, has been duped of Rs 2 lakh by a youth who assured them assistance in providing medical treatment.

Seventy-year-old Ranjan Basu, a retired official of the state government, visited the Hospital with heart-related ailments a few days ago.

The doctors in the hospital said the patient needed a pacemaker.

Basu's wife Sabita said a man named Biswarup Ghosh told her that he would arrange a pacemaker for Basu and they would not have to wait for a long time to undertake the surgery.

The accused youth, a resident of Santoshpur area in Southern fringes in the city, demanded Rs 2lakh for helping them to get a pacemaker.

The elderly couple did not even ask a question why the man was demanding money for the pacemaker when they were supposed to get it free of cost at the hospital.

The accused allegedly forged the letterhead of some senior officials of the hospital to convince the victims. He told the couple if they do not pay the amount they would have to wait for many days to get the surgery done. The couple told the police that they provided the amount to the accused in two installments.

The couple went to the SSKM Hospital on Saturday and produced the forged documents and came to know that they have been duped by the accused and all the papers provided to them were fake.

On the basis of a specific complaint the police started a case and initiated a probe into the incident. They are conducting raids to nab the culprit who is at present absconding.

Earlier, in many occasions people have been duped by youths with false promise of medical assistance.

This occurs because many senior citizens are unaware of the fact that state government provides all types of treatment at completely free of cost.