Police have arrested three doctors from the district in connection with the death of a 24-year- old man in April this year, an official said on July 5.

While one of the accused was arrested for wrong line of treatment, two others were held for allegedly issuing fake additional degree certificates to him, he said. "The victim, a resident of Shil Phata, developed severe breathing problems and was rushed to the clinic of Dr Mohammad Dawood Khan (43) in Mumbra on April 24 this year," Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kalwa), Ramesh Dhumal, said in press conference late July 4 night.

"Khan treated the man at his clinic for over an hour. However, when his condition worsened, he took him to a hospital in his own car. But the man died on the way," the officer said. Shil Daighar police registered a case of accidental death and launched a probe. The victim's parents alleged that the death was caused due to the wrong treatment given by Khan.

As part of the probe, police sent Khan's medical certificates for verification to Thane civil hospital, which said that although his Bachelor of Unani Medicine & Surgery (BUMS) degree from Madhya Pradesh was genuine, he was not competent to handle trauma and emergency cases, Dhumal said.

It also confirmed that his other degree certificates were fake, he added. "During the probe, police found that these additional degree certificates were issued to him by two doctors- Mohammad Frahan Mohammad Saheed Shaikh (36) and Abdul Rehaman Hakimuddin Khan (36), in lieu of money," he said.

A report by the civil hospital said that when the patient became serious, Khan should have resorted to initial resuscitation and taken him to a bigger hospital in an ambulance. All three of them were arrested by the police on July 4. Khan was booked under IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and the other accused under provisions of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961. The trio was produced before a local court on July 4, which remanded them in police custody till July 8, Dhumal said.