Uttarakhand ACB books ex-AIIMS Rishikesh director for irregularities

Rishikesh, Sep 29 (PTI) The Uttarakhand Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed FIRs against former director of AIIMS, Rishikesh Ravi Kant and three others for allegedly committing financial irregularities in the establishment of a Coronary Care Unit (CCU) at the premier healthcare facility.

The tender for the 16-bed CCU project was floated in December, 2017 but it is still incomplete.

Apart from the former director of the institute, two other named FIRs have been filed against Rajesh Pasricha, the then additional professor, Radiation Oncology, AIIMS, Rishikesh; and Roop Singh, the then store keeper-cum-clerk of the institute, ACB sources said.

The fourth FIR has been filed against unidentified public servants and private persons, they said.

They were booked under different sections of the IPC including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property) and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (public servant accepting undue advantage such as bribe etc).

It has been found that Pasricha, Roop Singh and other unknown public servants abused their official position, conspired with Delhi-based contractor-supplier Puneet Sharma and did him undue favours to cheat the AIIMS, Rishikesh and caused wrongful loss to it to the tune of Rs 2,73,29,355.

The accused also made corresponding wrongful gains in the process, the ACB sources said.

The FIRs, which were lodged on September 26, followed raids conducted by the CBI and ACB at AIIMS, Rishikesh in connection with the case during which many irregularities and documentary discrepancies were found.

The construction of the CCU, in whose name all the alleged wrongful transactions were done with the involvement of the top functionaries of AIIMS, Rishikesh, is still incomplete. PTI COR ALM ALM KSS KSS