Another doctor gets ransom threat

PATNA: The imposition of President''s rule on the state does not seem to have deterred criminals from their nefarious activities. This became evident as within 24 hours of the presidential proclamation, a criminal threatened to kill top orthopaedician Dr R C Ram and his son Dr Anil Kumar, also an orthopaedician, if they failed to pay Rs 50 lakh to him.
The criminal, who introduced himself as Sonu, nephew of notorious criminal Bindu Singh, made three calls at Dr Ram''s residence at Kankarbagh between 3.55 pm and 4.15 pm on Tuesday.
Anil told TNN that he had lodged an FIR with the Patrakarnagar police station on Tuesday itself. The police, thereafter, beefed up the security already provided to Ram.
The state IMA on Wednesday drew the governor''s attention towards the incident in a letter sent to him. It urged him to take remedial measures to instil confidence among people, particularly the doctors. About 500 doctors of Bihar, including over 200 doctors of Patna, had received extortion calls from criminals during the past few years while 32 doctors had been kidnapped in the last 14 years, the state IMA pointed out.
A city-based surgeon, Dr N K Agrawal, was killed last November following his refusal to pay extortion money to criminals.
Dr Anil recalled that his father was the first doctor in the state to have been kidnapped in 1991, and was released by the criminals after remaining in captivity for 72 hours.