KATHMANDU, Feb 21: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a case against Binod Kumar Yadav, the then lab in-charge of Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center, Bansbari, Kathmandu, accusing him of committing corruption by preparing counterfeit PCR reports.
A person had lodged a complaint against Yadav at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj, alleging that since the first wave of COVID-19, he had collected swab samples from Dhaulagiri Clinic in Basundhara and tested them at the Hospital. While investigating the complaint, the police found that Yadav had issued the cash receipts in the name of Dhaulagiri Clinic while submitting the lab reports of Gangalal Hospital and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.
It was found that he was taking Rs 2,500 from one person for giving such a report. It was revealed in the investigation by the Maharajgunj Police Circle that he had collected the swab samples and issued photoshopped reports without conducting any test.
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Maharajgunj police had recommended action against him claiming that the records maintained in his computer suggested that he had issued fake PCR reports worth three to four million rupees.
After a complaint was lodged against him, the former Health and Population Minister Hridayesh Tripathi directed an investigation due to which a three-member internal investigation committee was formed by the director of the hospital, Dr Chandramani Adhikari, under the coordination of Dr Aasesh Gopal Amatya. The committee suspended Yadav for three months and demanded an explanation, stating that Yadav had misused the letterheads of the organization to spread infectious diseases by preparing counterfeit documents.
But Yadav filed a petition at the Patan High Court against his suspension after the hospital recommended a three-month suspension. However, the court rejected his plea.
A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Shahid Gangalal hospital on 12 August, 2021 formed a sub-committee to order departmental punishment. Earlier, the sub-committee had imposed the punishment of expulsion from the job, disqualifying him for any service to the center in the future.
Under Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Man Bahadur Basnet and Dr Shankar Kafle were the members of the sub-committee formed under the co-ordination of Bijay Rai, member of the organizing committee.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has also filed a case against him at the Special Court.
