Secaucus Doctor Demanded Sexual Favors From Patients In Exchange For Opiates: Feds

SECAUCUS, NJ — A man who lives in Secaucus and worked as a doctor in Fair Lawn is charged with soliciting sexual favors from patients in exchange for prescribing them opioid prescriptions.

Ritesh Kalra, 51, of Secaucus, was arrested and criminally charged, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced Friday. This is his ZocDoc rating page.

Kalra is charged in this five-count complaint with three counts of distributing opioids without a legitimate medical purpose, and in exchange for sexual favors, and two counts of healthcare fraud. Prosecutors say he billed New Jersey Medicaid for medical visits that never happened.

Kalra made his initial appearance Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa in Newark federal court and was released on house arrest and a $100,000 bond.

Dr. Kalra, an internist, ran his own medical office in Fair Lawn. Several of his former employees told FBI investigators that female patients told them Kalra touched them sexually and demanded sexual favors of them, including oral and anal sex, in order to obtain opioid prescriptions.

This happened through 2022 and 2023. Several former employees reported hearing sexual sounds coming from Kalra's private office, during appointments he had with certain female patients, according to the complaint, which has many details of the alleged sex incidents.

One patient said Kalra forced her to have anal sex with him during multiple clinical appointments. Kalra told the women to be quiet and not to tell anyone about his conduct. When she resisted, he told the patient she needed to engage in sexual conduct with him in order to keep getting her prescriptions, said the feds.

When she refused, he ceased prescribing her opiate pain medication, formally discharged her as a patient and refused to communicate with her, despite multiple attempts by the patient to communicate with him about transferring her prescriptions and her her medical care.

Another woman said at her first appointment with Kalra, he asked to see her breasts and "asked whether he could suck on them." He then asked the patient if she was recording him. This woman worked for Kalra also, and she said she kept working for him, and seeing him as a doctor, because he paid more than double what other local doctors' offices did.

Prosecutors say Kalra turned his Fair Lawn medical office into a pill mill and routinely prescribed high-dose opioids — including oxycodone and promethazine with codeine — to patients without a legitimate medical purpose. Between January 2019 and February 2025, Kalra issued more than 31,000 prescriptions for oxycodone, including some days when he wrote more than 50 oxy prescriptions a day.

Often, he prescribed these prescriptions to patients who lived more than 25 miles from his doctor's office, making prosecutors think he was writing the prescriptions without actually seeing the patients in person. Another patient continued to receive opioid prescriptions from Kalra when the patient was incarcerated at Essex County Correctional Facility and had no contact with Dr. Kalra.

Several of his former employees also told the FBI many pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions from Kalra, due to concerns about his prescription practices and that the drugs — oxycodone prescribed with promethazine with codeine — were so strong and addictive. However, one pharmacy in Jersey City, unnamed, routinely filled his scripts.

Kalra also allegedly billed for in-person visits and counseling sessions that never occurred. His electronic medical records allegedly contained false progress notes listing fabricated dates of service, and included examination notes that were generally identical from visit to visit and did not record vital signs.

Kalra is prohibited from practicing medicine and was required to shut down his Fair Lawn medical practice while the case is pending.