Burhanpur (Madhya Pradesh): Lal Bagh police station in Burhanpur arrested former chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Dr Viram Verma, in connection with the embezzlement of a government fund of a district hospital here in Burhanpur.
Dr Verma is currently serving as the district health officer in the Jhabua district after he was demoted from the CMHO to DHO due to negligence in work during the Corona period. With the arrest of Dr Verma, a total of 13 accused have been arrested so far. Police arrested him from Jhabua on Monday early morning and took him to Burhanpur for interrogation
Superintendent of Police Rahul Lodha said that while serving as the CMHO in the year 2020-21, Dr Verma had transferred crores of rupees received under the National Health Mission to the account of Rogi Kalyan Samiti by running note sheets.
This amount was later withdrawn by the former RMO Dr Prateek Navalkhe, the mastermind of the embezzlement scandal.
Instead of transferring the amount, Dr Verma got a commission. The entire matter was revealed after the arrest of mastermind Navlakhe and district accounts manager Sushant Jibenkar. During interrogation, he told Lalbagh police station in-charge, AP Singh said that all the commission amount was given to Vikram Verma in cash.
During questioning, it has been found that Verma bought property worth Rs one crore in Indore. The station in-charge AP Singh said that more information is being collected about this property. The property purchased with the amount of embezzlement will also be confiscated.
So far, thirteen accused have been arrested by the police in the embezzlement case. Three accused are absconding, for whose arrest the police teams are continuously raiding. Police have also recovered property and cash amount of about Rs 4.5 crore from the accused.
Those who have been arrested include former CMHO Dr Vikram Verma, former civil surgeon Dr Shakeel Ahmed, former RMO Dr Prateek Navalkhe, Dr Dhaval Patil, district accounts manager Sushant Jibenkar, district hospital clerks - Ashok Pathare, Brijesh Lad, Bharat Lodhi, Congress leader Sandeep Jadhav, YouTuber Sanjay Dubey, channel correspondent Rajesh Nimbhorkar, Mahesh Mavle of Sandhya Dainik and Ashish Gautam, clerk of Krishi Upaj Mandi.
One YouTubers and RTI activist Anand Dixit, journalist Gopal Devkar and Congress leader Vinod More are on the run and police searching for them.
