JAJPUR: Vigilance officials caught a doctor and the security guard of Danagadi community health centre (CHC) red-handed while they were accepting bribe from a person to issue his father’s postmortem report on Wednesday.
The accused doctor was identified as Pabitra Sethi and the security guard is Abhiram Kandi. Sources said Dr Sethi has allegedly demanded Rs 20,000 from the complainant to issue the autopsy report of his father who had died due to lightning last month. As per government norms, an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh is awarded to the next of kin of those who die due to natural disasters.
The complainant required a copy of the postmortem report to avail the ex gratia. However, Dr Sethi deliberately caused delay in issuing the autopsy report and demanded `20,000 bribe. After being informed by the complainant, Vigilance officials laid a trap and caught the doctor and security guard Kandi while they were receiving the illegal gratification. The entire bribe amount was recovered and seized.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches were carried out on the residential house of Dr Sethi at Thanual within Dharmasala police limits, government quarters and his office at Danagadi CHC to detect disproportionate assets. A case was registered against Dr Sethi under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 1988. Both the doctor and Kandi were arrested and will be produced in court, said a Vigilance official.