KEM Hospital employee booked for embezzling Rs 61.65 lakh via forged bills

Mumbai: A case has been registered against a contractual employee of Mumbai's KEM hospital by the Bhoiwada police for fraudulently drawing out Rs 61.65 lakh from the hospital's bank account by creating fake medical bills, fake stamps and forging signatures of an assistant and deputy dean.  

The money was meant for poor patients registered under government schemes that seek financial help from the Chief Minister and Prime Minister Relief Fund. 

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The accused have been identified as Gaikwad, working on a contract basis in the hospital since July 2019. She siphoned off the money between April 2022 and January 2023 while collaborating with medical store owners. 

The siphoned-off money belongs to patients seeking financial help from the Chief Minister and Prime Minister Relief Fund. The police stated that various patients come to KEM Hospital for treatment, and many are often unable to meet the cost of treatment and medicines. The patients submit requisite documents and get a utilization certificate from the hospital along with the estimated cost of treatment. 

The money then gets deposited in the hospital's bank account after the committee sanctions it. Talking about the fraud, a police officer said, "She withdrew the money meant for poor and needy people." 

The case was registered after a complaint was given by Dr Krantikumar Rathod, who works at the X-ray department of Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and the KEM hospital. Dr. Rathod said that poor patients take financial help from various trusts such as CM’s funds and PM’s national relief funds for operations and other medical treatments. These are deposited in the bank account of "Poor Box Charity Fund KEM Hospital", from which the medical equipment and other material suppliers are paid for. 

Gaikwad was hired for maintaining these records, processing the funds received for patients from the trusts, transactions, getting the signatures of senior doctors at the hospital to make payments to the vendors and ensure compliance with all the procedures. A police officer told the Indian Express, "After relevant scrutiny and approval, files would be sent to Gaikwad to initiate payment to pharmacies for the materials." A police officer said that they would investigate the role of the vendors in the embezzlement of funds and would make them co-accused in the case once their involvement is found. 

Gaikwad reportedly added medical bills to the files, forged doctor’s signatures, added the relevant stamp, and processed the payment through net banking. An officer said, "We suspect that some pharmacies are also party to the scam, as Gaikwad would wire money to their accounts and take cash from them later." 

The matter came to Dr Rathod's attention when a senior showed him a patient book with his signature on 6th January 2023. Dr Rathod got to know that somebody had forged his signature since it was not signed by him. Further, an official also noticed the forged signatures of an assistant dean and a deputy dean. A police officer said, "They were called to verify their signatures, which turned out to be forged. The dean of the hospital was then informed." 

Subsequently, the hospital's dean was informed of the same and Gaikwad was confronted. She confessed to the fraud, stating that she had forged the signatures of other senior doctors as well. A duplicate stamp was used by her to clear bogus bills of the vendors, Dr Rathod stated in the FIR. 

An inquiry was initiated into the incident, following which the assistant dean Dr Vaishali Gondane found that Gaikwad had cleared over a dozen duplicate bills of vendors illegally and embezzled Rs 61.65 lakhs. Based on the inquiry report, police registered a complaint against Gaikwad under sections 408, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 477A of the Indian Penal Code, reports the Hindustan Times. 

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