Ex-head illegally transferred 8,000 blood units: Rotary Club

NOIDA: Rotary Club of Noida has pinned blame for the alleged illegal transfer of 8,087 units of blood, worth nearly Rs 1.4 crore, on its former president Satish Chand Singhal, against whom it had last month filed a police complaint for embezzlement of funds.
Managing committee members of the Rotary India Research and Social Welfare Trust (RIRSWT) admitted to their negligence in overseeing the functioning of the blood bank in Sector 31, from where blood units were transferred to Kanpur and Gorakhpur, but argued in their defence the blood bank was solely run by Singhal and they “blindly trusted his activities”. Rotary Club of Noida has set up the trust in April 2007 to set up the blood bank.

RIRSWT is also facing allegations of organising blood donation camps in Noida and Ghaziabad illegally, thought it maintains it had an “open” permission. The chief medical officer (CMO) of Noida has formed a three-member committee to look into these allegations. “The committee comprises additional CMO Dr Shireesh Jain, Dr HM Lavania and drug inspector AK Jain. It was constituted on Friday and will submit its findings over the next week,” CMO Dr Anurag Bhargava told TOI.

Raids were conducted by the drug department at camps organised by the trust. Drug inspector AK Jain said over 150 camps were organised by the trust without required permission in the last six months. “The district magistrate can give permission to hold five such camps while the CMO can give two permissions. However, it was found that permissions were not taken apparently due to some management change that happened in October. Although there was no problem in the quality of blood being collected, we have sent a report to the state drug licensing authority,” he said.

Trilok Sharma, founder trustee, RIRSWT, told TOI: “We had taken an open permission from the state blood transfusion committee, Lucknow, for holding camps till April. After that, we had taken permission from the DM when the matter was raised.”

The club claims to have detected the “illegal transfer” of blood units in October 2017, the same month Singhal resigned from his post. According to the FIR lodged at Sector 20 police station, the club claims it was cheated of Rs 1.37 crore on account of the blood units because the money was not deposited the its official account. It has accused Singhal of embezzling a total of Rs 6.9 crore.

It also alleged that Singhal was on the managing committee of Mayanjali Charitable Blood Bank in Kanpur from which the RIRSWT did not receive any payments for the 7,000 blood units transferred.

However, the trust members alleged that Sree Lakhan Sewa Kalashi Charitable Blood Bank in Gorakhpur, had made payments for the 1,087 blood units they received from Noida blood bank, but the money never came to the RIRSWT blood bank account.

Singhal has denied all the allegations, terming them “personnel vendetta”. He said he was being targeted because he had become the governor of the umbrella unit of 88 Rotary Clubs operating in north India. “These allegations are personally motivated. The 11-member working committee knew everything that was being done,” he told TOI.

Sudhir Walia, governing body chairman of RIRSWT, said payments from the Gorakhpur trust was “illegally received” in the personal account of Rahul Goel, an accountant serving with the trust at that time, “on Singhal’s instructions”. In their police complaint filed on April 5, trust members had said “Goel gave a signed statement that any money received from any bank on account of illegal transfer was immediately paid to Singhal”.