Indian-American doctor granted USD 1 lakh bond on malpractice charges

Indian-American doctor granted USD 1 lakh bond on malpractice charges

A Indian-American doctor charged with the use of insecticides and other unauthorised drugs for treating cancer patients was granted a 1 lakh USD bond by a Federal Court in Alaska after he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Totada R Shanthaveerappa, and his assistant Dan Bartoli were indicted on 87 counts by a federal Jury. An Atlanta court in George state granted them release on separate bonds of one lakh USD.

Just four days before the duo appeared in court, the state medical board suspended the licence of the doctor also known as T R Shantha, while quoting that his medical practice posed a "threat to public health, welfare and safety".

This suspension had come only after a grand jury indicting him on various counts including insurance fraud, prescribing unapproved drugs and money laundering.

Bartoli, Shantha's 63-year-old assistant, has been charged with conniving with him for injecting several patents with 'Dinitrophenol' a commercial-grade weed killer and the insecticide 'Chemail Ukrain', as also the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
The prosecutors argued that both Shantha and Bartoli had also submitted false bills to insurance companies by indicating that he was using approved drugs when in reality he was not.
Lawyer Don Samuel defended his clients before reporters claiming that his legal team had accumulated hundreds of testimonial from the patients that Shantha has treated over the years. Some of these cases, claims the lawyer, includes a few that traditional medicine men had given up on.
Samuel refuted the Medical Board's contention that the doctor, in a letter, had acknowledged using two unapproved drugs. About the weed killer Samuel's commented that it was used regularly abroad.
"It happens to have the same chemicals you use to treat lawns. But so does water," Samuel said. “There's probably something in the cookies you eat that is used in weed killers too."
Shantha, has had a practice license since 1972 without any previous record of any action against him or his practice.