The Haryana health department has issued suspension orders to three doctors of Sonipat civil hospital as they were charge-sheeted for scheming with a gang involved in insurance scam aiming at cancer patients.

On December 18, the director general of health services (DGHS) had officially issued suspension to Dr Gaurav, Dr Ambuj Jain and Dr Parkash Jha. They had been arrested for their alleged involvement in conducting autopsies of patients dying of cancer, presenting them as accident victims.

The three doctors will face departmental inquiries for administrative punishment. Sources in the health department have also revealed that they might even lose their jobs.

The incident dates back to April when the special task force (STF) headed by deputy inspector general of police (DIG) B Satheesh Balan had busted the gang subsequently arresting one Pawan Kumar of Sonipat and his two associates.

Pawan and his gang, along with employees of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, would acquire the details of critically-ill cancer patients who were treated at the hospital. They would then contact their families and get the patients insured and ask the families to alert them on the patients’ deaths, after which they would project as deaths due to road accidents. Through the involvement of local police, the gang would get the autopsy report prepared to claim the insurance money.

Accordingly, the bigger nexus came to light and Dr Ambuj was the first government doctor to be arrested and following this, names of Dr Gaurav and Dr Jha also came forward and they were also arrested.

27 people were arrested in Sonipat and among those arrested by the STF included medicos, cops and investigators of insurance agencies as well as the relatives of the dead persons, who had alsogained the insurance benefits. The scam is alleged to be running in crores of rupees as each compensation varied between Rs 3 lakh to 15 lakh.

Shortly after the arrests, the STF received over 200 such complaints moved by various insurance companies. Also, it had forwarded the complaints to the respective districts for the registration of FIRs and arrests of the accused.

Source: ET Healthworld