A northern New Jersey doctor was sentenced Friday to nine years in state prison after he admitted to hiring a hit man to kill his lover and a former business partner, authorities said.
Sixty-five-year-old Ajit Jayaram, of Englewood, was sentenced on attempted murder and heath care and Medicaid fraud charges, state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said. Plans for the killings were uncovered while authorities investigated Jayaram for Medicaid fraud in 2010.
Jayaram was credited for the three years he has already served, according to his lawyer, Joseph Ren.
Jayaram, who had an office in Jersey City, was arrested in October 2010 after an investigation that found the doctor was receiving payments from Medicaid for examinations and procedures that were never performed or medically unnecessary.
It was then investigators learned Jayaram had twice tried to hire a hit man to carry out the killings. Chiesa said the hit man hired by Jayram was an undercover agent working for the state.
Authorities have said Jayaram wanted his lover killed because he owed her $250,000 and was worried his wife would find out about the affair. They say he wanted his former business partner killed due to disputes with him over another woman.
Neither was harmed.
Ren said Jayaram has no plans to appeal.
The attorney added that his client was a not violent person, and maintains his actions were the result of bad reactions to anti-depressant medications.
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.
