The Gujarat Health Department has arrested 38 suspected unauthorised medical practitioners and registered FIRs against 35 of them as part of a statewide crackdown on illegal medical practice conducted over 15 days.
The enforcement drive involved 298 teams comprising officials from the Health Department, local police, Crime Branch and Special Operations Group (SOG). The teams carried out coordinated raids across several districts, including Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot, under the guidance of Health Minister Praful Pansheriya.
The operation was supervised by Additional Chief Secretary Rajiv Topno and Health Commissioner Ratankanwar Gadhvi Charan.
Rajkot reported the highest number of arrests, with 17 suspected practitioners taken into custody. Surat followed with nine arrests, while three were apprehended in Gir Somnath and two in Surendranagar. The remaining seven arrests were made in other parts of the state.
Pansheriya said district-level committees had been constituted under existing government directives to identify and take action against individuals practising medicine without authorisation. These committees include health officials, police personnel and local revenue representatives and are conducting raids based on intelligence inputs and information received from informers.
During the operation, officials also found that some suspected practitioners had shut down their clinics and fled before the joint teams could reach the premises. The Health Department and police are continuing their search operations and surveillance to trace them.