Doctor involved in supplying ‘substandard health protective gears’ remanded to police custody

Imphal: Dr M. Dinesh Singh, senior medical officer, Central Medical Store, Directorate of Health Services cum state nodal officer, State Health Society, NHM Manipur has been remanded to police custody till Friday allegedly for supplying substandard medical protective gears and for involvement in the procurement of medical protective gears without supply orders from various firms including N-95 masks allocated to District Hospital, Churachandpur.

The doctor was produced before the Court of the special Judge  (PC Act) Imphal West on Wednesday with a prayer for remanding him into police custody till July 13.

An application was filed by the accused through the counsel praying for releasing him on bail.

While producing the accused before the court the IO submitted that the state medical directorate was found to have procured medical protective gear including N-95 mask for the purpose of combating against Covid-19 pandemic from various firms without following the established norms of procurement and distributed to District Hospital authorities and CMOs of 16 districts in Manipur.

The medical directorate have so far procured 52100 numbers of N-95 masks from 5(five) firms, namely, Blue Sky Services, Guwahati (29150), Nim Pharmaceuticals, Guwahati (2000), Global Infrastructure and Construction, Dimapur, Kohima (C/o Lords, Delhi) (12900), Fama Marketing, Guwahati (3050) and Yumnarn Agency, Imphal (5000) without issuing supply orders to the respected firms and distributed to District Hospital authorities and CMOs of 16 districts in Manipur.

Out of the said 52100 masks 3050 numbers of N-95 Masks were supplied District Fama Marketing, Guwahati from which 200 numbers of masks were issued to  Hospital, Churachandpur vide allocation orders dated April 3 and 6 by Dr. M. Dinesh Singh and all are found to be of substandard quality and unfit for use as medical protective gear to combat Covid-19 pandemic, mentioned in the order.

The Counsel of the accused submitted that  all the questioned items have been procured undergoing statutory provisions and the accused had no hands in procuring the substandard items. It is also submitted that the accused shall abide by any condition(s) imposed upon him and there is no question of absconding and thus bail may be granted to the accused. It is also submitted that the accused is a mere senior medical officer and a scapegoat in the case.

From the submission of the parties and on perusal of the materials on record there is prima-facie case against the accused in the procuration of the questioned items and further that for the purpose of proper investigation, police custody remand of the accused is required, the order said.

Accordingly, the accused is remanded into police custody till 2 pm of  Friday and the accused is to be produced at or before 2 pm of the day

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