A phimosis operation on a four-year-old, a non-bailable warrant, a lookout notice: Purba Bardhaman 'doctor' arrested at Delhi airport, murder charge sought

Small nursing homes in West Bengal's districts carry out a great deal of routine surgery, and the person holding the scalpel is often known to a family only by the title on the gate. The West Bengal Medical Council's register exists so that title can be checked. In September 2026 a child died in Purba Bardhaman after a minor operation, and the investigation that followed led to the arrest of a man police describe as a fake doctor.

According to a PTI report carried by the Free Press Journal on 7 October 2026, a man named Sheikh Saidul allegedly performed a phimosis operation on a child in September at a nursing home in the Nababhat area of Purba Bardhaman district. The child reportedly died of complications. Police began an investigation on the family's complaint, and Saidul fled when he learned of the FIR. A designated magistrate issued a non-bailable arrest warrant, Purba Bardhaman Police issued a lookout notice, and officers tracked him by monitoring his wife's telephone calls. He was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi; the prosecution said he was trying to leave the country for Sharjah. He was brought back on transit remand, and on the prosecution's request the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Bardhaman remanded him to six days of police custody. The prosecution also sought permission to add a murder charge under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Three others have been arrested, including two co-owners of the nursing home.

Medical Dialogues, reporting on 8 October without naming the accused or the procedure, gave a different account of the airport arrest. It said the child was four years old, that police believed the accused had been hiding in Dubai for a few days after the death, and that Delhi Police held him under the lookout notice on Tuesday night soon after he returned from Dubai. Burdwan police then flew him to Kolkata, reaching the airport by 1.30 am on Wednesday, and took him to Burdwan police station. Police said he faced several other allegations and that the investigation had raised questions about his medical qualifications. A member of the Association of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes thanked the police and said the body hoped five other people it had identified would also be arrested.

On the police account, the check that failed was at the nursing home. Its co-owners, now among those arrested, allowed a man whose qualifications are in question to operate on a child, and the only check that worked was a grieving family's complaint. The arrest itself turned on routine policing: a warrant, a lookout circular and a phone trace.

For parents the lesson is to ask for the surgeon's West Bengal Medical Council registration number before any operation, however minor, and to look it up on the council's online register. A nursing home that cannot produce it should not be used. For anyone tempted by a quick route into practice, this case shows how it ends: a dead patient, a murder charge sought and an arrest at an airport.