NEW DELHI, 8 JULY: The special investigation team of the crime branch has arrested four more persons allegedly involved with the CGHS scam. Two of them are pharmacists while the rest acted as middlemen.

The crime branch is investigating the case in which drugs meant for the poor were being sent to the open market and sold through chemists.

According to DCP (crime) Ashok Chand, the pharmacists have been identified as Sunil Kumar - employed with the Sriniwaspuri CGHS dispensary for the past two years - and Kishan Kumar who has been posted at the Paschim Vihar dispensary for the past three months after working at the Pitampura unit for three years. The two middlemen have been identified as Pankaj and Shiv Prasad.

"We have found a new module in operation when we arrested the four. The government generally stocks the general and less costly medicines with them. The more costly ones are procured with government money and then distributed among those who have been prescribed such medicines. The accused pharmacists would use indented prescriptions by doctors and buy the costly medicines using the government funds. They would then sell them to middlemen keeping a 35% cut. Next, the middlemen sold these medicines to medical shop agents after keeping another 15% cut. The final medicine is sold at 15% less than the market value to attract customers," said additional DCP Joy Tirkey.

The police said several doctors whose prescriptions were found to be in use would be questioned. "On several occasions, children of CGHS-covered employees were found to be prescribed medicines of hyper tension meant for adults. There is a good chance of doctors being arrested, too," said a source.

Earlier, two CGHS employees - a pharmacist and an assistant dresser employed with the Tilak Nagar dispensary - were arrested for running the racket. Anil Yadav (23), a resident of Mukundpur, was arrested from Bhagirath Place, the wholesale drugs market of Delhi.

"Anil disclosed that one Ravinder Singh, a pharmacist, and Bacha Singh, an assistant dresser, both from the Tilak Nagar CGHS dispensary, siphoned off CGHS supply medicines and gave it to him for sale. Ravinder Singh (41), a resident of Rohini, and Bacha Singh (48), a resident of Hari Nagar in west Delhi, were apprehended from the same dispensary. CGHS supply medicines worth more than Rs 3 lakh were also seized from him. The racketeers sold these medicines to the chemist shop at Bhagirath Place," said Chand.

The cops said the arrests came after a raid was conducted at a chemist shop and godown located at Jagsonpal Building, Bhagirath Place, along with the drug inspector of government of NCT of Delhi. Apart from spurious medicines which were seized, the medicines also included stocks meant for use by CGHS, MCD, ESI and DGAFMS Hospitals and dispensaries and had their stamps on them. Investigations further revealed the medicines had stamps of different government agencies. These medicines were supplied by one Vickey, Anil and Naren. All three are absconding.

Source: Times of India