Mumbai: Film producer Swapna Patkar arrested over 'fake' PhD degree

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Film producer Swapna Patkar was arrested on Tuesday on cheating and forgery charges for allegedly obtaining a fake PhD degree in clinical physiology and using it to get a job in a hospital here, a police official said.

Patkar (39) is best known for producing Marathi film 'Balkadu', a biopic of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray which was released in 2015.

She was arrested after an FIR was registered against her at the Bandra police station in suburban Mumbai on May 26 under IPC sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), the official said.

She had been practicing as a clinical psychologist at a prominent hospital located in Bandra (West) since 2016, he said.

A 51-year-old social worker, Gurdeep Kaur Singh, had lodged a police complaint against Patkar after Singh received a set of documents in a sealed envelope in April related to the latter's PhD degree from an anonymous source, the official said.

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According to the documents, the PhD certificate of Patkar, purportedly issued by the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur, in 2009 was actually fake, he said.

Using the alleged fake degree, Patkar managed to get appointment at the hospital as an honorary consultant and was treating people having mental health issues, the official said.

On May 26, Singh approached the Bandra police with the complaint against Patkar, he said, adding further probe in the case was underway.

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