PM-JAY Fraud: Ahmedabad Doctor Sanjay Patolia Arrested

Dr Patolia joined the Rajkot Government Hospital in 1999 as an assistant professor in the surgery department. Two other accused are still on the run.

Ahmedabad: The crime branch on Wednesday arrested Dr Sanjay Patolia, who was at large after the expose of the Khyati Hospital fraud where two patients died after placing the stent under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) Scheme. Two other accused — Rajshree Kothari and Kartik Patel, CEO of the hospital — are still on the run.

Dr Patolia joined the Rajkot Government Hospital in 1999 as an assistant professor in the surgery department. Then he started private practice as a gastro and bariatric surgeon. In 2005, he started the New Life Hospital in Rajkot and the Asian Bariatric Hospital was started in 2014 on SG Highway in Ahmedabad, which was renamed Khyati Multispecialty Hospital in 2019.

So far, seven persons — Dr Prashant Vajrani, Dr Chirag Rajput, Dr Milind Patel, Dr Rahul Jain, Dr Pratik Bhatt, Dr Pankil Patel, Dr Sanjay Patoliya, Dr Rajshree Kothari, and Dr Kartik Patel — have been arrested

On November 10, Khyati Multispecialty Hospital organised a free medical camp in Borisana village of Kadi taluka of Mehsana district. About 19 out of the patients who turned up there were admitted and seven were given stents.

Patients Mahesh Barot (45) and Nagarbhai Senma (59) died within a few hours of stent placement, performed by Dr Prashant Vazirani.

What's most surprising, Vazirani has not been included in the panel of doctors but did the angiography-angioplasty of the patients. After the incident, the hospital owner Dr Kartik Patel and other doctors were absconding. The main accused Vazirani was arrested on November 14, the day he performed the medical procedure.