In its crackdown on quacks in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, health officials ended up discovering two fake paramedical colleges in Madaharpakkam village on Friday. The village is about 60 km away from Chennai. An MBBS doctor’s wife was in charge of one of the colleges, which was located on top of his clinic, according to a report in The New Indian Express.

Ankaiah, the doctor is also being questioned as his clinic was found to have an unregistered ultrasound scanner. Health officials suspect that it could have been used for carrying out illegal abortions or sex determination tests. Officials added that the doctor was not able to give a valid reason for possessing the scanner. The college was named Arokia Madha Paramedical Sciences College and was run by the doctor’s wife, Ramani, (35). She has a master’s in science degree. About 12 students were studying in the college and it has been in operation for one-and-a-half-years now.

The college was offering two-year basic nursing courses. Moreover, Ankaiah who completed his MBBS from Andhra Pradesh was not registered with the Tamil Nadu Medical Council, which is mandatory for a doctor working in Tamil Nadu.

Another medical college named Anbu Evangeline Paramedical College was running with no statutory approvals about 500 metres from Arokia college. The woman running the college claimed that she was an MBBS doctor. A quack who claimed to be an MBBS doctor but was actually a physiotherapist, was also arrested by Pathirivedu police station.

The officials said that he was sharing his clinic with two doctors, and they forced him to work as a doctor. The two people are Dr Sri Priya and Dr J Anbalagan. The health officials will be asking the medical council to take immediate action against them.