Four arrested for cheating government dispensaries

NEW DELHI - Four men, including a pharmacist of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), allegedly involved in buying medicines from government dispensaries on false pretences and then selling them in the market, have been arrested, police said Saturday.

Attar Singh, 46 working as a pharmacist in a CGHS dispensary in Nanak Pura, Satish Kumar, 40, Singh’s driver Sanjeev Kumar, 40 and Manoj Kumar, 27 were arrested Feb 2 on a tip off that the four would assemble in Gole Market area of central Delhi.

The gang got hold of the documents of about 47 beneficiaries from the database of CGHS and falsely got medicines supplied under their cards and then sold them at 50 percent of the prescribed rates.

“The racket was being run by Singh for more than 18 months and he has caused a loss of more than Rs.18 lakh to the exchequer. Singh claims to have made around Rs.10 lakh from the illegal activity and has invested the amount in property,” a police official said.

According to police, Singh examined the CGHS data bank, found the names of those who had not used the government allotted card for the last three years and then got new cards made with the data.

About 47 such cards were procured by him from various dispensaries across the city. Sanjeev then got OPD cards issued from various government hospitals in the name of the card holder. On these OPD cards, Singh allegedly filled in the medicines and forged signatures of the doctors, said police.

“After removing the CGHS stamp with a thinner, Manoj would sell the medicines in the market,” added the official.

Medicines bearing the stamp “CGHS supply: Not for sale”, 47 CGHS cards fraudulently procured, seven stamps of doctors of All Iindia Institute Medical Sciences and Safdarjung hospital and 29 OPD cards of various hospitals were recovered from the four, the official further added.