An elderly doctor, who describes himself as the “cultural czar of Delhi”, has been accused of threatening a family of a young medic after she refused to marry him, her mother has alleged.
Dr Anjan Prakash Kaur, a former All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMs) doctor, alleged that she and her daughter have been getting threatening calls and messages from unknown numbers to withdraw a court case against Dr Harish Bhalla, a physician who runs a clinic in Regharpura locality of Karol Bagh.
However, the accused has denied the allegations.
The threatening calls are being made using voice over internet protocol (VOIP), she told The New Indian.
Dr Kaur served at a hospital run by the Central government in Delhi for 40 years and currently lives with her daughter, also a doctor, in South Delhi. She alleged that the caller has been threatening to withdraw the case of forgery and cheating against Dr Bhalla, otherwise be ready to face consequences.
A complaint with the Delhi Policy Cyber Cell failed to stop the threatening calls, she alleged.
“We would often get calls from someone to withdraw our case against Dr Harish Bhalla but we never changed our stand. From August, the calls started coming from various internet numbers. The caller never would tell us his name,” the complainant said.
She further said: “Due to continuous harassment, I had to change my contact number. But somehow, the caller got the new number and started calling on that number too.”
Dr Kaur said she filed a case against Dr Bhalla for forging documents to show that he was married to her daughter. He submitted the fake marriage certificate to get free guest entry into the Delhi Golf Club.
A case of forgery and cheating was filed against Dr Bhalla at Nizamuddin police station in 2017.
“My daughter always looked up to him as her father… We did not get justice from the district court so we approached the Delhi High Court,” she said.
The accused doctor came in contact with Dr Kaur and her daughter at a conference in Delhi in the last weeks of 2015.
“Bhalla won our trust by calling my daughter as her daughter. He would often visit us at our home. But we had no idea about the fake marriage certificate,” she said.
While the golf club cancelled his membership for submitting fake documents, the Indian Habitat Centre showed him the exit door due to misconduct, the complainant said.
When contacted, Dr Bhalla said he was not aware of the threat calls to the complainant.
“I know them but I am not aware of any such calls. I never made any calls. In fact, this is the first time that I got to know about this,” said the doctor.
His personal website describes Dr Bhalla as “a medico with passion for art, culture, music, and theatre with a penchant for social crusades”.
The Delhi Police are verifying the allegations against Dr Bhalla, said a senior police officer. “We approached the Delhi High Court and State is in Appeal with us for justice,” said Dr Kaur.