20 July 2009
Calcutta, India
Police have sought the intervention of the state health minister to prevent smuggling of medicines and consumables out of NRS Medical College and Hospital.
“We have informed the health minister that some employees stole medicines stocked in the hospital and sold them in the market. We have zeroed in on seven people involved in the racket,” said an officer of Muchipara police station.
According to him, the suspects fudged documents to run the racket. “It’s surprising that the authorities were in the dark. The racket operated despite the presence of employees for monitoring hospital stocks.”
The health department can help by providing cops details of supplies sent to hospitals.
Bina Turi and Mohammad Taufique, Group D employees of the gynaecology department arrested on Saturday in connection with the racket, allegedly revealed names of officials having links with the gang.
“We suspect that members of the racket sold life–saving drugs meant for poor patients,” said an investigator.
Bina and Taufique’s arrest followed that of Naresh Rajak. The man in his late–40s was held in his house in Serpentine Lane in Sealdah last week, where a huge quantity of medicines and other items stolen from state hospitals were stocked. “The seized medicines are worth over Rs 2 lakh. We have provided the batch numbers of the seized items to find out whether they were sent to hospitals or not,” said an officer.
A probe suggests that Rajak used to sell stolen hospital supplies to traders in Bagri market. “It appears that he used to receive the supplies from NRS Medical College and Hospital,” said the officer.
The seized items include costly surgical suture materials, channels for injections, adhesive tape, stainless steel suture needles and catheters. These came in sealed packets bearing the name of the manufacturers.
Disclaimer: The news story on this page is the copyright of the cited publication. This has been reproduced here for visitors to review, comment on and discuss. This is in keeping with the principle of ‘Fair dealing’ or ‘Fair use’. Visitors may click on the publication name, in the news story, to visit the original article as it appears on the publication’s website.
