4 days Ago
Pune: Police are investigating 16 serving and retired employees of Sassoon General Hospital and Baramati Medical College , who include an accountant and a woman cashier, and eight private individuals for an alleged embezzlement of Rs4.19 crore. They are accused of siphoning the hospital funds to 24 private accounts between July 31, 2023 and January 24 this year.
Deputy commissioner of police (zone II) Smartana Patil said the Bund Garden police on Saturday registered a case of cheating, criminal breach of trust and common intention under sections of the Indian Penal Code following a complaint lodged by the hospital's administrative officer Goroba Awate (55). "The probe has been handed to the economic offences wing (EOW)." BJ Medical College (BJMC) and Sassoon hospital 's dean Dr Eknath Pawar said 11 employees from BJMC and four from Baramati Medical College had been suspended after they were found to be involved in this fraud .
"These 15 were working at Sassoon hospital when the embezzlement took place. They are an office superintendent, seven clerical staffers, one medical social worker, one ward boy, and five nurses. The suspension orders have been issued by the medical education department until an enquiry is completed," he said.
Dr Pawar said preliminary enquiry showed the staff had bypassed the dean's approval before passing bills. "The 16th person, who was then active in the hospital's administrative work, had retired from service. Eight other people, who are not at all associated with the hospital, were involved in the fraud," the dean said, adding the account will be re-audited and the police too will investigate the matter.
Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary (medical education and drugs), told TOI: "The suspension orders have been issued by the commissioner of medical education and drugs department. Such repeated incidents do damage the reputation of the hospital and it is a sad thing. We have repeatedly taken action against staffers involved in illegal and illicit behaviour.
" A Bund Garden police officer said the alleged fraud came to light during an audit exercise, following which an internal inquiry was conducted by the hospital authorities. Funds sanctioned by the state govt are deposited with the hospital's drawing and disbursing (DDO) account, from where they are distributed to the hospital's different units/departments for works as per the requisition made by the heads of these units/departments, the police said. The complainant said the audit exercise revealed that the accountant and the cashier had transferred funds from the DDO account to 24 private accounts, some of which were held by employees and private persons.
The two were govt servants, and the state had entrusted them with the duty to manage the account and funds, but they had misused their positions, the complaint stated. A senior EOW officer said, "We will study details of the DDO account and then we will question the accountant, the cashier, and other beneficiaries before taking legal action.".
