Woman with PCOD dies after ward boy posing as 'doctor' gives her injections at her Navi Mumbai home; held

NAVI MUMBAI: Police have arrested a quack after a 21-year-old woman, who was suffering from hormonal disorder, died allegedly after he administered injections at her Vashi residence on Feb 5.

The accused, Sandesh Pashte (30), is a Mankhurd resident who works as a ward boy in a nursing home in Andheri, said senior inspector Shashikant Chandekar of Vashi police station.

The deceased woman was identified as Prachiti Bhuvad, a resident of Giridhar Niwas building in Vashi Sector 11.

Police registered an FIR against Pashte under relevant sections of BNS for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and cheating and arrested him after the woman's father, Bhikuram Bhuvad, filed a complaint on Feb 6. On Monday, he was remanded to police custody till Feb 10.

Vashi NMMC Hospital's medical superintendent Dr Prashant Jawade said, "As it is a case of death due to medical negligence, after the woman's post-mortem examination, the preliminary autopsy report mentions an opinion reserved for cause of death. The viscera sample has been preserved for histopathology and sent to Kalina FSL for confirmation of the cause of death."

Bhuvad told police that his daughter suffered from PCOD (Polycystic Ovarian Disease), and his niece Priyanka Mahadik suggested Pashte for treatment, who had claimed in the locality that he was a physician and made home visits. Mahadik had, in the past, taken treatment from Pashte for similar ailment and had recovered. Convinced, Bhuvad made an appointment with Pashte for Prachiti's treatment on Feb 5.

Pashte, an HSC pass, administered Emeset and Dynapar injections intravenously. As Prachiti's health deteriorated, her father, accompanied by Pashte, rushed her to a private PKC hospital in Vashi, where she was declared ‘brought dead on arrival'. Pashte reportedly charged Bhuvads Rs 15,000 for the ‘treatment', which was paid online. Prachiti lived with her father, who works at the office of a chartered accountant in Prabhadevi, while her mother and brother live in their native place in Mhasala, Raigad district.

On Monday, investigating officer API Yogesh Bhosale and a team visited Pashte's Mankhurd residence and the Andheri nursing home to gather evidence to make it a "water-tight case".