Woman doctor arrested in Rs 6.33-crore NRHM scam in Bihar
2 min readDr Indu Singh, owner of a private nursing home,was among 12 doctors against whom a vigilance court in Patna had issued non-bailable warrant of arrest on May 19 for alleged irregularities committed between 2009 and 2012.
A lady doctor was arrested in Bihar’s Kaimur district, 186 km southwest of Patna over charges of her involvement in a Rs 6.33-crore fund scam under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam on Monday evening.
Kaimur police said Dr Indu Singh, owner of a private nursing home at Kudra, 18 km from district headquarters of Bhabua, was one of the accused along with her husband, Dr Pramod Kumar Singh.
Pramod Kumar Singh, who was arrested on May 1, is at present languishing in a jail after a vigilance court in Patna declined him bail.
Indu Singh would be produced in the vigilance court in Patna, Kaimur superintendent of police, Harpreet Kaur said. “She is accused of conducting fake tubectomy procedures and embezzling Rs 8,47,500 government money in the process,” Kaur said.
Kaur said Indu Singh was among 23 persons, including 12 doctors, against whom the vigilance court had issued non-bailable warrants of arrest on May 19 for alleged irregularities committed between 2009 and 2012.
Kaur said the 23 accused were facing charges under Sections 420 (punishment for cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using forged document), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code and Section 13(1)(D) of Prohibition of Corruption Act.
“The audit report of the State Health Society, Bihar, showed that payments under NRHM had been made for fake tubectomy procedures and deliveries. Some of the doctors were found to have conducted more than one tubectomy procedure and facilitating delivery on a single woman,” Kaur, who had ordered a detailed investigation in the matter while reviewing the case last year, said.
“The report had pointed out that a woman, Mina Devi, was shown to have given birth to 12 children within four months, besides undergoing tubectomy procedures 14 times during the same period. Surprisingly, she was 36 years of age when tubectomy was performed on November 23, 2009, but her age was shown as 29 when she gave birth to a child after four days, the report added.
The investigations also pointed to instancesreferred to by doctors in which at least 11 women were shown to have delivered children 5 to 12 times within four months, besides undergoing tubectomy 7 to 11 times in the same period, which proved the sham,” deputy superintendent of police Dilip Kumar Jha, the investigating officer of the case, said.
In a related development, one of the prime accused, Varun Kumar Singh, surrendered in the vigilance court on Monday. The court had issued orders to attach the property of Singh, who runs a non-governmental organisation, after he was found absconding.
The scam was detected in 2012 and two FIRs were registered at Bhabua police station in the same year. Later, the case was handed over to the vigilance bureau.
Courtesy: HT
