An Indian-origin physician in the USA has been charged with soliciting sexual favors from sufferers in change for opioid prescriptions and defrauding New Jersey Medicaid. He has additionally been charged with distributing opioids with no respectable medical function, the U.S. Legal professional Alina Habba introduced.
After Kalra made his preliminary look earlier than US Justice of the Peace Decide André M. Espinosa in Newark federal court docket, he was launched on house incarceration and an unsecured US greenback 100,000 bond. U.S. Legal professional Alina Habba stated in an announcement that the New Jersey physician can also be prohibited from training drugs and prescribing remedy.
Moreover, he shall be required to close down his medical follow whereas the case is pending.
Who Is Ritesh Kalra?
Dr. Ritesh Kalra is 51 years previous from Secaucus, New Jersey, and was charged in a 5-count Criticism with three counts of distributing opioids outdoors the same old course {of professional} follow, not for a respectable medical function, and in change for sexual favors, and two counts of healthcare fraud.
He’s an internist in Honest Garden, New Jersey, and allegedly between January 2019 and February 2025, issued over 31,000 prescriptions for oxycodone.
The U.S. Legal professional’s assertion additionally knowledgeable that Dr. Karla “allegedly operated a tablet mill out of his medical workplace, the place he routinely prescribed high-dose opioids—together with oxycodone—and promethazine with codeine to sufferers with no respectable medical function.”
In the meantime, a number of former staff of Dr. Kalra have reported that feminine sufferers complained that he touched them sexually and demanded sexual favors from them to acquire their prescriptions.
“Physicians maintain a place of profound duty—however as alleged, Dr. Kalra used that place to gas dependancy, exploit weak sufferers for intercourse, and defraud New Jersey’s public healthcare program. By allegedly exchanging prescriptions for sexual favors and billing Medicaid for ghost appointments, he not solely violated the regulation however endangered lives. Our Workplace will proceed to pursue those that flip their medical licenses into instruments for private achieve and sexual gratification,” U.S. Legal professional Alina Habba stated within the assertion.
How A lot Jail Time Is Ritesh Kalra Dealing with?
The assertion clarified that every rely of distributing managed substances carries a most penalty of 20 years in jail and a US greenback 1 million high-quality. As well as, every rely of well being care fraud is punishable by a most potential penalty of 10 years in jail and a high-quality of US greenback 250,000, or twice the gross revenue or loss attributable to the offense, whichever is bigger.