Fake Doctor tried to Kill Family after Fearing Exposure of Lies

Satya Thakor, aged 35, formerly of North Evington, Leicester, was jailed for 28 years after he tried to kill his family members when he feared that his lies of working as a doctor were about to be exposed.

Reading Crown Court heard he was a failed medical student but pretended to be a doctor for seven years.

When he feared they would find out, he armed himself with a knife and attacked four members of his family at his mother-in-law’s house.

Thakor had been leaving home every day and pretending to go to work. He would actually spend all day reading medical books in the library.

He feared his lies would be exposed when his wife suggested a holiday to Los Angeles, a trip he could not pay for because he had not been earning money.

Thakor then came up with a plan to kill his mother-in-law.

Judge Paul Dugdale explained: “He was buying some time. He was not intending to kill anyone else when he set out that evening except his mother-in-law.

“I think it probably was a wholly illogical thought process but to him, it seemed entirely reasonable.”

The build-up to the attack at his mother-in-law’s home in Berkshire took several years as the pressure of maintaining his lies mounted on Thakor.

Michael Roques, prosecuting, said: “He was studying to become a doctor at the time he met his future wife who was studying to become a solicitor and the two of them started a relationship.

“He told his family he had achieved the grades required to become a fully qualified doctor.

“What became apparent eventually was he did not complete that course and did not obtain the qualification he needed.”

Thakor told his family he had found a job as a doctor but was nearly caught when he agreed to fund his honeymoon after he got married.

On the day of the wedding, he caused a car crash to get the honeymoon cancelled.

Mr Roques said: “The defendant drove his car into the central reservation on the M4 motorway.

“As a result of that, the wedding had to be delayed but still took place later that day.

“The honeymoon was cancelled. It is the prosecution’s case that there never was a honeymoon because he did not have the money.”

After his marriage, Thakor continued with his lies for seven years, leaving home each morning and arriving home at night.

To maintain his lie, Thakor claimed he had to work night shifts and left the house overnight.

Mr Roques said: “One Christmas, he said that he had to go to work and came back later and, when asked about why he seemed upset, he said that they had lost a patient that day.”

Following the birth of their daughter, Thakor lived off his wife’s earnings, telling her he was saving his earnings to put towards their house.

But when the family planned to go to Los Angeles, Thakor needed to buy more time.

Mr Roques continued: “He was supposed to have booked not only the flights to go to the States, but also the tickets for the various shows.

“No such flights or tickets had been booked. He was shortly going to be found out or at least there had to be a reason not to get on to the flights.”

Thakor told his wife Nisha that he needed to attend a plastic surgery workshop in Reading so the couple would need to stay with her mother Gita Laxman at her home.

On May 14, 2019, Thakor walked into Ms Laxman’s bedroom and asked if he could use the en-suite toilet.

Thakor then attacked her, trying to force tissue into her mouth and covering her head with a pillow.

Mr Roques said:

“She struggled and screamed and he then began to stab her repeatedly.”

“Her screams alerted Nisha, who thought her mother was having a nightmare.

“Nisha saw the defendant. He immediately ran past her and her instinctive reaction was that he was perhaps fighting a burglar or something of the sort.

“Nisha realised her mother was underneath a duvet on the bedroom floor.”

Thakor then turned on his wife, stabbing her in the neck and leg. He also stabbed his brother-in-law Primal Laxman and sister-in-law Rishika Laxman.

Police arrived at the scene and found Thakor with several injuries, having stabbed himself. He also shouted about demons but only did so when police officers were present.

Thakor was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and claimed that demons had told him to carry out the attacks.

Mr Roques added: “He was asked by his psychiatrist to give some background. He maintained at that stage he was a practising doctor.

“It was only when he was asked where his team could be contacted to let them know where he was, that he admitted he was lying.”

Following a trial, Thakor was found guilty of three counts of attempted murder and one count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Bernard Tetlow QC, defending, said: “He just could not bring himself to accept what he considered to be his own failure and having embarked upon it just carried on for a very long time indeed.

“It is still a mystery in many ways as to why he chose to do that other than his own sense of failure and his own sense that he was letting everybody down.”

In a letter to the judge, Thakor wrote: “The shame of not being able to graduate as a doctor and the fear of admitting this would cause my family and friends to abandon me and my upcoming wedding to be called off, led me to lie and say that I had graduated and become a doctor.”

Judge Dugdale told Thakor: “You were at university in London when you met Nisha. You were studying biochemistry and she was studying law. The two of you met socially at a party. She felt that you were somebody special. She felt over the months that followed that you were someone she loved and she trusted.

“There is no doubt that at that stage and until she walked into her mother’s bedroom to see what you were doing, she loved you absolutely.

“The two of you fell in love, you started a relationship, she passed her law exams, you did not get the mark you needed to pass your biochemistry to become a doctor.

“We all have failures in our lives in exams. Part of the essence of having a supportive family, which you do have Mr Thakor, is you can talk to them about it. It is no big deal.

“You decided that you simply could not face the truth that you were not going to become a doctor and you decided that the way you were going to get out of that was to tell everyone you were a qualified doctor who had started practice.

“You were prepared to go to what many people would think were quite extraordinary lengths to continue your deception.”

Judge Dugdale went on to say that Thakor could have stopped the attack but made the “idiotic decision” not to.

Leicester Mercury reported that Thakor was jailed for 28 years and was made subject to an indefinite restraining order against his family.