BENGALURU: An orthopaedic surgeon from Ahmedabad has approached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to help him get justice in an alleged fraud by a Bengaluru-based consultancy/services agency, which claims to help healthcare professionals in getting placements abroad.
The complainant, Dr Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi, in October last year had sent an email to the MEA regarding the company – Bioplannet India Private Limited, Bengaluru – stating that he wanted to work overseas and had enrolled with the company in 2018 for registering him with the Ireland Medical Council.
He stated that he had paid Bioplannet Rs 4,72,000 in two instalments in 2018. Chaturvedi and Bioplannet had later signed a MoU for the registration process in December 2019. The final instalment of Rs 1,77,000 was to be paid after the “completion of registration and placement,” stated the MoU.
“I had visited Bioplannet and had met Mr Senthil, director, and discussed my registration process. Senthil and his staff had assured me that they were the authorized agency and would complete the registration process within nine months from the date of registration /enrolment (May 2018).
Based on their promise, I transferred Rs 4,72,000 in two instalments (Rs 1,18,000 on May 23, 2018 and Rs 3,54,000 on August 30, 2018) through bank transfer,” Chartuvedi said. He added that as he didn’t hear about his registration from the company despite several efforts, he wrote a mail to the Ireland Medical Council to and was shocked to learn that they had “not received any communication from Bioplannet and that the company had no authority to carry out the registration process,” he wrote to the MEA.
Chaturvedi said that in the last two years he had made multiple visits to Bengaluru to follow up with Bioplannet. “They moved from HSR Layout to Richmond Road and Koramangala,” he said. He has filed two complaints against Bioplannet and Senthil at the HSR and Koramangala police stations. The MEA had forwarded the mail to the Protector of Emigrants (PoE), Bengaluru, asking him to look into Chaturvedi’s complaint. “We summoned Senthil to the PoE office but he has not appeared,” Shubham Singh, PoE, Bengaluru, told TNIE. He said that he has received more than one complaint against the company.
Singh said that “there is no registered overseas recruitment agency in the name of Bioplannet in Karnataka.” HSR Police Inspector Munireddy said that they had summoned Senthil but he did not appear.
When approached, Senthil said that he was in touch with Chaturvedi. Regarding the complaint, he said, “Bioplannet helps healthcare professionals with the documentation and registration process for overseas placement. We had sent Rs 3 lakh to the Ireland Medical Council for Chaturvedi’s documentation but the process has got delayed because of the Covid pandemic.” He agreed that he had changed his office location. “What is wrong with that?” he asked.