Senior medical officer, clerk caught red-handed taking bribe for audit clearance

Ludhiana: A Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the government hospital at Sidhwan Bet, along with her assistant clerk, was arrested on Friday by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Vigilance Bureau for allegedly running a bribery racket under the pretext of audit clearance.

According to official sources, the two officials from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) were allegedly extorting money from employees posted at dispensaries operating under the Sidhwan Bet hospital. Investigations revealed that nearly 125 employees across 25 dispensaries were reportedly forced to pay bribes to secure audit clearance.

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The complainant alleged he was forced to pay Rs 4,000. The SMO is accused of demanding and accepting sums ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 6,000 from about 50 contract-based employees across different dispensaries.

Acting on the complaint, the vigilance team laid a trap by deputing a decoy to deliver the bribe. The money was initially handed over to an assistant clerk who allegedly passed it on to SMO. The vigilance team then conducted a raid and caught both accused red-handed accepting chemically treated currency notes totalling Rs 32,000.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Senior Superintendent of police (EO wing), Vigilance Bureau, Rupinder Kaur Sra confirmed the arrests.

A spokesman for the department said the total amount of Rs 1,04,500 was recovered from a purse belonging to the SMO, and another amount of Rs 1,07,000 was recovered from the pockets of the senior assistant, reports Tribune India.

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