A government health centre employee in Uttar Pradesh recently made headlines after a video of him purportedly demanding money in lieu of a COVID-19 negative report went viral. Days later, he was dismissed from service by the Farrukhabad district magistrate. He will also be facing charges over the incident.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the accused is Vijay Pal, 50. He has been working on a contract at the Nawabganj community health centre in Farrukhabad for the last five years as the Block Community Process Manager.
District Magistrate Manvendra Singh has directed officers to lodge an FIR against Pal.He released a statement about the incident saying, "Action against Pal has been taken following an inquiry. He could not give any satisfactory explanation and said he made the statement for fun."
Meanwhile, Nawabganj Station House Officer Ankush Raghav said he had not received any instructions about an FIR.
The District Magistrate further mentioned that he got to know of the video quite late, almost a week after it went viral on the internet. In the video, Pal is allegedly seen asking for a fee of Rs 200 for a negative Covid antigen test report and is also allegedly heard saying, "Money is needed to do wrong things". He was seen making this declaration in his office.
