RAIPUR: Dr Puneet Gupta, son-in-law of former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, despite being issued multiple notices to appear in alleged financial irregularities, is still roaming free.
Gupta is a key accused in the alleged irregularities in the purchase of expensive equipment and the recruitment process in the state-owned super specialty DKS hospital in Raipur. Gupta was the superintendent during the previous regime of the BJP.
Thanks to the 'lax' approach of the Raipur police, a whistleblower organisation has put up posters at prominent points citing Dr Gupta as 'Most Wanted.' The posters which have been put up on vehicles have also declared a hilarious award of merely Rs 51 for any information that can help trace his location.
Puneet was also in charge of DKS Post Graduate Institute and Research Centre. “We have issued a notice (a fourth one) again asking Dr Puneet Gupta to appear before the police. He had so far not responded to the earlier ones sent by us. A case has been registered against him in the Gole Bazaar police station in Raipur,” the city superintendent of police Nasr Siddique told the Express.
However, social activists are not convinced and say that the police have “exposed their double standard.”
“The swift police action is seen only against the common citizens who at times are also humiliated but here what prevents the police to act strongly and track down Dr Gupta who blatantly ignores notices of the police, despite the law enforcing agency accessing every information”, said Kunal Shukla, a social activist associated with the whistleblower group.
The activists felt that when the police appear so helpless, why not take the help of the public through the mode of posters.
Dr KK Sahare, the present superintendent of the DKS hospital, had lodged a complaint against Dr Gupta in March this year after a probe committee found that he allegedly misused his position and committed a fraud to the tune of over Rs 50 crore.
Dr Gupta’s name had also figured in the Antagarh assembly by-poll “fixing” scandal where the sting tape purportedly carried his conversation too.
Raman Singh has been claiming the move by the police is “politically motivated”.