Bribe for issuing COVID-19 clearance certificates: Doctor arrested by CBI

Paradip: CBI sleuths have arrested a doctor working under the Port Health Organisation, Paradip on the charge of accepting a bribe of Rs 54,000, an officer of the probing agency said on Friday.

A case was registered against the health officer after a trap was laid and he was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe on Thursday, the CBI official said.

The sleuths of the Central Investigation Bureau also searched his premises in Paradip, Cuttack and Balasore and “recovered Rs 17 lakh and USD 20,558 in cash” and several documents, including deeds of properties at various places in Odisha and in Hyderabad in Telangana.

Also Read:Kerala: Orthopaedician caught red-handed while accepting bribe for surgery

While being taken by CBI for medical examination to Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar, the accused claimed that he was innocent.

The doctor allegedly took a “bribe from a West Bengal-based shipping company to issue COVID-19 clearance certificates to its employees”, the official said.

While working under the Port Health Organisation, Paradip, his main function was to provide COVID clearance certificates to those coming from other countries, a port official said.

The doctor was accused of demanding a bribe of Rs 1,500-2,000 from each crew member to give them the COVID clearance certificate.

On Thursday, he demanded over Rs 1 lakh from 70 crew members of the shipping company and was apprehended while taking the bribe, the official added.