Rs 3-cr assets of ex-superintendent of Patna med college attached

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 6

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth over Rs 3 crore in a money laundering probe against former superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital OP Choudhary, the probe agency said on Friday.

The properties attached include plots and flats in Patna, Ghaziabad, Pune and Bengaluru, three four-wheelers and some balance in bank accounts, the agency said in an official statement, while adding that the total value stood at Rs 3.14 crore.

The agency said during the course of probe it was found that medicines, chemicals, equipment and machines were “purchased by the officials of the PMCH during 2008-09 and 2009-10 from local vendors and commission agents contrary to guidelines prescribed for purchase of these items”.

“The then superintendent (OP Choudhary), the then deputy superintendent and the faculty head of the PMCH at that time and others in connivance with the suppliers had purchased medicines, chemicals reagents, machines and equipment at a higher rate and in much higher quantity, which resulted in loss to government exchequer,” the ED alleged in the statement.

The agency had slapped criminal sections of the PMLA against Choudhary and others after studying a 2017 FIR of the special vigilance unit of Bihar on the matter.