Krishnagar, Dec. 6: A self-proclaimed doctor was stripped, beaten up and paraded in shorts here today.

Bapi Sarkar, 30, was asked to shout at the top of his voice that he was a fake and beaten up again when he refused.

The resident of Shantipur is now at Shaktinagar Hospital.

He had been practising as an allopathic doctor in Krishnagar town, about 80 km from Calcutta, for the past two years and had a roaring business. The signboard in front of his chamber said he was an MBBS as well as an ayurved.

“Bapi told us he had completed MBBS through a distance learning course and was a graduate in ayurvedic medicine from an institute in Calcutta,” a police officer said. Being in hospital, Bapi could not show any document. “We know there is no recognised MBBS correspondence course.”

The trouble started when Monaranjan Sarkar, a trader from Karimpur, came to Bapi’s chamber around 9 am with an injured collar bone. Bapi bandaged him and wrote out a prescription for an X-ray and medicines and demanded Rs 1,500.

A stunned Monaranjan complained to the local people about the exorbitant charge. “The residents were waiting for such a complaint as they had started suspecting Bapi,” an officer said.

Bapi alleged from his hospital bed that organisers of a local Jagaddhatri puja who had demanded Rs 15,000 from him were behind this morning’s attack.