Rourkela: A local court on Monday sentenced a fake doctor to 29 months of rigorous imprisonment for impersonating a qualified medical practitioner and cheating using forged documents.Pradmanavan Mukhi Karwa (54), a Class XII pass-out from Jharkhand, was working at the Rourkela Govt Hospital (RGH) dialysis centre under the false identity of Dr Ramesh Chandra Jha. The convict had secured the position through a Chandigarh-based outsourcing firm, Rahi Care Dialysis.The fraud came to light when Karwa applied for a personal loan of Rs 16.53 lakh from a private non-banking financial firm. During document verification, it was discovered that he had submitted Jha’s certificates with his own photograph.Following a complaint filed by the finance company on June 26, 2024, Raghunathpalli police arrested Karwa under various sections of the IPC, including forgery and cheating. In a separate case, the outsourcing firm’s area manager, Mayur Agarwal, filed a complaint on June 28, revealing that Karwa had been drawing regular salary under the false identity.Public prosecutor Akshaya Kumar Sahoo, who represented the state during the proceedings, said chief judicial magistrate (first class), Sarmista Padhi, pronounced the verdict after examining 14 witnesses. The sentences under different IPC sections will run concurrently. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000, with an additional month’s imprisonment in case of non-payment.This isn’t Karwa’s first offence. He was previously convicted for a similar fraud at Nuagaon PHC, where he worked from 2016 to 2019. In April 2022, he was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment by JMFC, Sundargarh.