Fake gazette scam: Vigilance takes Motilal Gouda on 3-day remand

Cuttack: After State Crime Branch claimed to have extracted vital information from Motilal Gouda, the prime accused in the fake gazette notification case, during his interrogation, the State vigilance today took him on a three-day remand and started questioning him about the money trail at its headquarters here.

The Crime Branch, which had arrested Gouda from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh, had taken him on a six-day remand, which ended on Thursday.

In the fake notification issued in October, 2015, Gouda had asked 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 also in the process of signing another contract worth Rs 1.02 crore with Nalco when the matter came to the fore and a complaint was registered with the investigating agency.

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