Medical officers booked for irregularities

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, March 5

The Panchkula police have booked two medical officers of the local Health Department on charges of cheating, forgery and irregularities in reporting for duty on time under several sections of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act on a complaint filed by a journalist.

The medical officers are Dr Sarita and Dr Meenal Gahlawat, who are deployed at the ESI Dispensary in Sector 19.

The complaint

The complainant said the medical officers were allegedly not attending to patients, especially during Covid-19, and remained absent during their working hours. They referred patients to various hospitals. He said the medical officers also stamped blank OPD tickets.

The complainant, Chander Shekhar Dharni, said he visited the dispensary on a tip-off on December 11, 2020, about the misdeed and irregularities prevalent. He said medical officers were allegedly not attending patients, especially during Covid 19, and remained absent during their working hours and referred patients to various hospitals. He said medical officers also stamped blank OPD tickets.

It was revealed after questioning a few patients and driver of Dr Meenal, a medical officer, that Dr Meenal reached hospital at 9 am, not following her duty hours.

“As per the information received by me, the official duty hours are 7 am to 1 pm and 1 pm to 7 pm. Thereafter, to verify the facts stated by the driver, I went inside the dispensary to take the recorded versions of Medical Officer and Senior Medical Officer where I met with Dr Sarita and Dr Meenal. Dr Sarita, when confronted with some facts and bogus referral OPD tickets, refused to comment. Dr Meenal kept intervening in the support of Dr Sarita,” said Dharni.

“Thereafter, I recorded the version of the Senior Medical Officer Dr Aradhana who disclosed the misdeeds, irregularities and in-disciplinary behaviour of Dr Sarita. She said Dr Sarita is supposed to join her duty in the evening shift but she used to come in the morning shift and does not even sign the duty roster. She also disclosed that whenever she wanted to take any disciplinary action against Dr Sarita, she was given the threats of transfer by Dr Sarita with influence of her VIP status,” states the FIR.

“The complainant comprehends that since the above named medical officers are politically influential, they can implicate the complainant in a false case just to save their skin and may also cause harm to the complainant. It is therefore requested that the life and liberty of the complainant and his freedom as a journalist be protected,” the FIR further read.

The FIR has been filed under Sections 420 (cheating), 464, 465 466, 467, 468, 471 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 51, 56 of the Disaster Management Act at the Sector 20 police station.

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