A stethoscope, a forged Ayurvedic certificate and a fake government medical officer's ID: Horana police arrest a 52-year-old 'doctor' accused of Rs 50 million fraud, June 2026

In Sri Lanka a doctor must be registered with the Sri Lanka Medical Council, and an Ayurvedic practitioner with the Ayurvedic Medical Council, before treating anyone, and a government medical officer carries an official identity card. None of these documents is hard to imitate, and a June 2026 arrest in Horana, south of Colombo, showed how far an imitation can carry someone who uses it to borrow money as well as to treat patients.

According to Hiru News (18 June 2026), the Horana Special Criminal Investigation Unit arrested a 52-year-old woman on 17 June at a housing complex in Gurugoda, Horana, in a house belonging to a monk living abroad. Police said she had posed as both a Western and an Ayurvedic practitioner and as an agent importing medicines, telling acquaintances she needed money to pay customs taxes on consignments. One complainant in Galedadugoda, Horana, said she had taken Rs 9.8 million; a woman in Narthanagala, Munagama, said Rs 5 million; further complaints came from Pokunuvita and Millaniya, and police put the total at nearly Rs 50 million. Police said she had run fake clinics across the country, travelled in hired luxury vehicles and distributed medicines. Officers seized a stethoscope, a forged certificate claiming an Ayurvedic qualification, a copy of a fake identity card made to look like a government medical officer's card, and other forged documents. Police said she held no legitimate certification as a government medical practitioner.

Newsfirst (18 June 2026) reported the suspect as a 52-year-old woman from Kurunegala who posed as an Ayurvedic doctor and claimed to import Ayurvedic oil products from India, obtaining Rs 32.8 million on the pretext of releasing consignments from the port and more than Rs 50 million in total; she also hired vehicles and pawned them. Hiru News added that during the investigation she applied through a lawyer for anticipatory bail, saying she feared arrest; the magistrate refused it and ordered her arrest, and she went into hiding until found on 17 June. She was due in court on 18 June. Police have not named her, and the case is before the courts.

The check that failed was the same in every transaction: nobody asked the Ayurvedic Medical Council or the Health Ministry whether the certificate and the identity card were real. The medical identity was the collateral for every loan, and the loans were the real business.

For patients, and for anyone lending money on the strength of a professional title, verify the registration with the council concerned before trusting the coat, the car or the card. For students, a certificate's value lies in the register behind it: earn a qualification through study, never through a printer, because the register is what a court will check.