The Commissionerate Police on Monday arrested an employee at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on charges of trying to embezzle funds from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) with the help of forged documents.
The accused has been identified as Dilip, a record keeper at a private hospital in the Capital city, said Bhubaneswar DCP, Uma Shankar Dash.
Dash said that the accused along with two of his associates had submitted documents using the name of some patients in seeking financial help to the tune of Rs 5.43 lakh from the CMRF which provides assistance to the poor and the needy.
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Preliminary investigation revealed that three persons from Nayagarh district had submitted documents pertaining to treatment at a leading private hospital.
The fraud attempt was busted after the health department during routine verification found the documents fake. A complaint was subsequently lodged at the Bharatpur police station and a detailed investigation was carried out by the police.
“During verification of papers, it was found that no such patient was undergoing treatment at the private hospital. Later, we zeroed in on Dilip, who works as a record keeper at the hospital. He hails from Krushnaprasad block in Puri district. We found Dilip had helped in preparing such fake documents along with his associates,” said Dash.
According to Commissionerate Police, two other middlemen used to bring patients for admissions in hospital. They used prepare fake documents and apply for assistance under the CMRF. They would keep the original papers and bank documents and pay Rs 10,000 to the actual patient. They would take away the remaining money,” said Dash.
The DCP added, “During scrutiny, we found the Aadhaar cards and name of patients were genuine. But the period of treatment and other details were not matching. The accused was trying to miutilise the government scheme to usurp money. He was arrested following a routine verification of the CMRF processing. We are now conducting further probe to find out if the accused and his associates had committed similar fraud in other hospitals,” Dash added.