The New Indian Express News

CBI registers case against eight, including six PGIMER employees, in patient welfare grant scam

CHANDIGARH: In an alleged Rs 1.14 crore patient welfare grant scam at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against eight people, including six employees of PGIMER. Sources said that the funds were meant for the treatment of poor and critically ill patients between 2020 and 2024, but were allegedly siphoned off over several years through fake bills, forged medical documents, forged requisitions and utilisation certificates, manipulating or deleting official records and misuse of patient records, including those of deceased patients. The accused bypassed prescribed procedures and routed funds through bogus beneficiary accounts to the photocopy shop owner, his partner and their relatives. Medicines procured on paper were allegedly sold illegally in the open market. The Private Grant Cell at PGIMER handled grants received from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, National Relief Fund, Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi and Hans Culture Society. The CBI alleges that officials of the cell, in conspiracy with private persons, siphoned off Rs 1.14 crore by diverting funds to private bank accounts. The case was registered on December 17, following a detailed probe initiated by the apex agency after serious irregularities came to light at the Private Grant Cell of the institute, after a complaint was filed by the vigilance branch of the PGIMER. The case has been registered by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the CBI under Sections 120-B read with 406, 409, 420 and 471 of the IPC and Section 13(1)(a) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018). The internal committee of the institute had earlier detected 11 fake mandate forms showing non-patients as dependents for payments totalling about Rs 19 lakh, release of Rs 38 lakh to firms without valid prescriptions, even in cases where patients had died, 70 irregular cases between 2017 and October 2021, 37 missing patient files and 17 instances of manipulated bills leading to double payments.