Tinton Falls Doctor Admits She Kept Illegal Household Servants, Loses Medical License

TINTON FALLS, NJ — On Tuesday, the NJ Board of Medical Examiners permanently revoked the medical license of a Woodbridge physician who admitted she illegally recruited and harbored two women from India to be household servants for low pay.

The doctor is Dr. Harsha Sahni, who owned a rheumatology practice on Inman Avenue in Colonia, now closed.

She lives in Tinton Falls, and that is where she had the two undocumented women live in her home; she paid them very low wages and denied them medical care, said federal prosecutors.

She had the women regularly clean her medical office in Colonia, said federal prosecutors.

Last February, Sahni pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to conceal and harbor aliens, and filing a false tax return. In October, a federal judge sentenced her to 27 months in federal prison.

Sahni has not started serving her prison term.

On Tuesday, she agreed to permanently give up her medical license, said New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin.

According to this federal criminal complaint against Sahni, she required both women, identified only as Victim 1 and Victim 2, to live in her Tinton Falls home. She told the women they would be arrested and deported if they interacted with law enforcement. She required the women to work daily, seven days a week, from approximately 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for roughly $240 to $600 a month. Sahni did not pay the women directly, but sent the money to their family in India.

From the criminal complaint:

"In 2016, Sahni falsely claimed that Victim 1 had been abused by her husband to scam a domestic violence charity into providing Victim 1 with free dental treatment. Knowing that Victim 1 could not speak, read or write English, Sahni allegedly completed the entire charity application form herself, including those portions which were to be completed and verified by the patient. Sahni identified herself as a medical professional on the charity’s 'Advocate Form,' listing her medical office’s address and phone number, and signing a certification confirming that she believed Victim 1’s dental problems were the result of domestic violence. (The woman did not have a husband.) Because of this false application, the woman was treated by a volunteer dentist who was not compensated for his work, and the value of the donated services was $6,000. Sahni allegedly perpetrated a similar scam against the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey’s Community Health Center in Red Bank, where she lied about Victim 1’s income, housing and employment status, resulting in Victim 1 receiving services for a reduced fee.

Sahni also allegedly prevented Victim 1 from receiving treatment for a life-threatening brain aneurysm. According to the complaint, when Victim 1 began developing headaches following an auto accident in 2014, Sahni told the woman that rest was not permitted and if Victim 1 had a headache she should take Tylenol and complete her work. As the headaches worsened, Sahni allegedly told Victim 1 that seeing a doctor would be too expensive and since Victim 1 did not have any paperwork showing she was in the United States legally, she could not be treated. Sahni allegedly treated Victim 1’s increasingly severe headaches with Tylenol and unidentified pain medications until 2021, when the headaches became debilitating and threatened to keep Victim 1 from performing her daily work.

"At this time, Sahni finally brought Victim 1 to an emergency room where she falsely presented herself as Victim 1’s sister and served as her translator. When a CT Scan of Victim 1’s head revealed an unruptured aneurysm in her brain, doctors advised Victim 1 — through Sahni — that immediate surgery was indicated and that failure to do so could lead to Victim 1’s death. However, Sahni advised Victim 1 to leave the hospital against medical advice. Once home, Sahni allegedly required Victim 1 to work the rest of the evening, completing her regular tasks."

The following day, Sahni took Victim 1 for a follow-up examination at JFK University Medical Center’s Neuroscience Institute, where neurosurgeons concluded that because of the aneurysm's size there was a 1-in-5 chance that it would rupture and Victim 1 could die. Sahni told the doctors she was the woman's personal doctor. But still Dr. Sahni allegedly continued to advise Victim 1 to not undergo surgery while continuing to make her complete her normal household workload.

After speaking with family members in India, Victim 1 expressed a desire to move forward with surgery, at which time Sahni allegedly told her she could not undergo surgery until she found a replacement to cover her daily duties in Sahni’s home.

According to the state of New Jersey, there is no evidence in Victim 1’s medical record that Sahni ever took her for follow-up treatment or scheduled the surgery. It was immediately after this that law enforcement raided Sahni's home in Tinton Falls and physically removed Victim 1 from Sahni’s home.

The woman ultimately did not die from the brain aneurysm. It is unknown if she ever got the life-saving surgery doctors say she needed.

Also, despite the fact that the women were household employees, Sahni admitted in court that she did not pay taxes related to their labor and did not disclose the labor performed by the victims on her personal income tax return.

In addition to the prison term, federal Judge Georgette Castner sentenced Sahni to two years of supervised release and ordered restitution of $728,327. Sahni must also pay up to $200,000 in medical bills for the one woman with the brain aneurysm.

In a final consent order filed with the Board on Tuesday, Jan. 7, Sahni agreed to resolve the allegations against her by surrendering her license, which will be deemed a permanent revocation.

“There is no place in the medical profession for this kind of criminal conduct and utter disregard for humanity," said NJ Attorney General Platkin.

Prior on Dr. Harsha Sahni: NJ Suspends License Of Woodbridge Doctor Who Kept 2 Women As Servants (Sept. 2023)