Theft from Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar: 4 house-keeping staff, scrap dealer arrested

Two days after the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar reported theft of medical instruments worth Rs 60 lakh from its pathological laboratory; police on Thursday arrested five persons including four housekeeping staff engaged at the hospital. The fifth arrested person is a scrap buyer in the Unit-III area.

Briefing media about the theft, the IIC of Capital Police Station, Padmanabh Pradhan, said, “We registered a case and started an investigation after receiving a complaint on October 17 from the director of the Capital Hospital that some pathological instruments of a lab were stolen in the morning.” 

During the investigation, police came to know that four of the house-keeping staff who had been working for five years in the hospital had stolen the instruments and sold them to a scrap dealer living in Unit-III area, the IIC said, adding that the five were arrested along with the seizure of some equipment. The accused have been identified as Bhagirathi Nayak, Rama Nayak, Sagar Nayak, Gopalkrushna Panda (all housekeeping staff), and SK Allauddin (a scrap dealer).

He also stated that further investigation into the matter is on.

Notably, the theft was captured on the CCTV camera of the Hospital. The director of the hospital, Dr Laxmidhar Sahu confirmed the theft of instruments worth around Rs 50-60 lakh. Among the stolen items were some unused and new instruments which are meant for various pathological tests.

After checking the CCTV footage, Sahu filed a complaint at the police station and suspected that uniform-wearing people carrying instruments in sacks could be the contractual staff engaged in the hospital.