Fake doctor Shyam Acharya’s in-laws furious as they reveal fraud medico deceived his wife

EXCLUSIVE: THE wife of a fake doctor who treated NSW patients for 11 years was also kept in the dark about her husband’s fraudulent life, her family say.

Shyam Acharya’s wife was kept in the dark about his fraudulent life.

THE wife of a fake doctor who treated NSW patients for 11 years was also kept in the dark about her husband’s fraudulent life, her family say.

The family of Pratibha Tokachichu yesterday spoke for the first time about the scandal, telling The Daily Telegraph of their shock and anger at the shonk doctor’s betrayal.

Ms Tokachichu’s brother-in-law said the family had no inkling of the fake life Shyam Acharya, 41, was living within their family. Acharya stole the credentials of Dr Sarang Chitale while in India and worked under the assumed identity for 11 years at public hospitals in Gosford, Hornsby, Manly and Wyong from 2003. The real Dr Chitale is now a specialist in the UK and also knew nothing of the fraud.

Shyam Acharya impersonated Indian Doctor Sarang Chitale and worked in the NSW health system.

NSW Health imported the fraudster into the workforce on a skilled migration program in 2003. He used an Indian passport in the fake name and went on to obtain Australian citizenship, a driver’s licence and a property at North Ryde.

“(The family are) all distressed. They don’t know what to do. This is a total shock to them ... everyone is angry, what else can we do?” the fake doctor’s brother-in-law said.

He said the family, including Acharya’s wife, who married him as Dr Chitale, didn’t know of the deception until the news broke last week. “When the news came out I was totally shocked,” he said. “(The family) are as shocked as anyone could be in this situation.”

He said he hadn’t seen Ms Tokachichu, the sister of his wife, Praveena, for eight months and her fraudster husband for more than two years. Pratibha Tokachichu and her child remain in Australia.

Sarang Chitale. whose identity was stolen in India, now lives in the United Kingdom.

“Everyone is trying to get to the bottom of it,” the brother-in-law said. “Nobody in the family has heard from him, he’s just left.”

The brother-in-law said the family knew Acharya by the name “Sarang”.

“Everyone referred to him as Sarang. We are totally distressed.”

Praveena Tokachichu declined to comment.

From today, NSW police will begin investigating Acharya with the Fraud and Cybercrime Squad called in to examine the fraudster’s assets.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed Health Minister Brad Hazzard called Commissioner Andrew Scipione on Friday asking him to launch an investigation.

The Health Department wants to seize Acharya’s North Ryde property — worth an estimated $1.5 million — as proceeds of crime to pay back the money Acharya earnt in wages.

As a junior doctor, he could have been paid as much as $203,000 a year.