3 Years on, no chargesheet filed in Odisha Apollo fraud case
Three years have passed since a case of false and inflated medical bills was registered against Apollo Hospitals here, but the police are yet to submit its chargesheet. T
Published: 26th July 2018 02:15 AM | Last Updated: 26th July 2018 03:25 AM | A+A A-
BHUBANESWAR: Three years have passed since a case of false and inflated medical bills was registered against Apollo Hospitals here, but the police are yet to submit its chargesheet. The hospital was accused of raising fake bills to the tune of `5.86 lakh by none other than the Central PSU National Aluminum Corporation Limited (Nalco) in 2015.The patient, Mini Das, had been admitted to Apollo Hospitals here under the cashless treatment arrangement with Nalco between April 19, 2015 and April 23, 2015. She had undergone coronary angiogram and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in the hospital.
Following her treatment, Apollo Hospitals raised a credit bill of `5.85 lakh on April 23, 2015 and submitted it to Nalco. In the medical bill, Apollo included `4.2 lakh expenses towards cath-lab consumables and attached an invoice stating that the equipment were procured from a Kolkata-based firm.
However, when Nalco officials scrutinised the bills, they found out that the Kolkata-based firm had not supplied the stent to the hospital. The matter was then referred to the Vigilance wing of Nalco corporate office for further investigation into the matter.
Nalco later constituted a committee for reviewing all the high value bills submitted by Apollo Hospitals between 2013 and 2015. Police sources said the company has traced about `40 lakh fake bills raised by Apollo Hospitals under the guise of purchasing equipment for the patients from various organisations.
A complaint in this regard was lodged with Saheed Nagar Police following which a case was registered under Sections 467, 468, 471, 420 and 34 of the IPC. Commissionerate Police had arrested DGM (Finance), Apollo Hospitals Amar Kumar Behera and junior supervisor Prabir Kumar Pradhan in this connection. “We will file a chargesheet in this regard soon. We have sought documents from the organisations stated to have supplied the equipment and further investigation into the matter is on,” Saheed Nagar IIC Padmanava Pradhan said.
