CB gets Motilal Gouda on six-day remand

Bhubaneswar: The Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) court here on Monday allowed the Crime Branch of Odisha police to take Motilal Gouda, the arrested former assistant director of the Directorate of Factories and Boilers, on a six-day remand.

Gouda, who was arrested yesterday from Vizianagaram for embezzlement to the tune of Rs 63 lakh, was taken from CB headquarters at Cuttack to EOW office here and produced at the SDJM court today.

Sources said the CB had sought seven days remand of Gouda for interrogation.

Gouda had allegedly caused a loss of Rs 63 lakh to the Odisha government by issuing a fake gazette notification asking industries in the State to get the health check-ups of their staff done at one of the five ’empanelled’ pathology laboratories. Based on this notification, he even managed to sign a contract with Navaratna PSU Nalco for Rs 63 lakh. Gouda was in the process of signing another contract worth Rs 1.02 crore when the matter came to the fore and a complaint was registered with the investigating agency.

Notably, on November 17, 2015, the State government had removed 408 medical officers from government service for remaining ‘absent from duty for a long period unauthorisedly and willfully.’ Gouda’s name had appeared in the list at serial number 355.

Curiously, Gouda was working as the Assistant director in the Department of Factories (Medical), which functions under the Labour department, when he was sacked and continued to do so till a scam perpetrated by him sealed his fate. Later he was sacked by the Health department.