Mastermind behind Raffles Hospital medical tourist visa scam jailed

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The Times Of India, 26 Aug 2010

SINGAPORE: An Indian-origin woman, who is working as a marketing assistant at a top hospital here, has been jailed for seven and half months for forging medical memos to extend visas of 11 Bangladeshi women.

Charenjit Kaur, 39, forged doctors’ memos at Raffles Hospital to make them look like 11 Bangladeshi women were receiving treatment at the hospital, but when they were not, The Straits Times reported today.

These 11 women, aged from 24 to 32, were working as prostitutes here and looking for a way to stay longer, the report said.

The scam of Charenjit, who has the responsibility for attracting patients from South Asia under a medical tourism campaign, was discovered when one of the Bangadeshi women was caught for prostitution.

Charenjit, a Singaporean of Indian decent, had committed six counts of forgery and 13 offences of providing false information to Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, a district court was told yesterday.

Charenjit joined the hospital in 2005 with responsibility to source patients from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

One of her associates in the scam, Shamin Sheikh, would be produced in the court today.

Sheikh, 35, a construction worker from Bangladesh, provided her with the genuine patients but later started sending Bangladeshi women who were not patients.