Agra CHC fraud: Two staff members among threearrested, probe underway | Kolkata

Three people, including two staff members, were arrested on Wednesday (April 9) in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds under government schemes at the Agra’s Fatehabad Community Health Centre (CHC), whose records showed during a health department audit that a woman delivered 25 times within 18 months, officials said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Agra East) Atul Sharma confirmed three accused have been arrested. The police are working on clues obtained so far and others involved will also be arrested, he added.

The FIR was lodged at the Fatehabad police station against the main accused, Ashok, who named two of the CHC’s staff members — Neeraj Awasthi and Gaurav Thapa, Agra chief medical officer (CMO) Dr AK Srivastava said on Wednesday. The complaint was filed by the CMO, who had visited the Fatehabad CHC on Tuesday (April 8) and interacted with the woman in question, Krishna Kumari.

Ashok, said to be an acquaintance of Krishna Kumari, was the mastermind as he got the bank account opened in the name of the woman, who was unaware of the fraud. Ashok mentioned his own mobile number to get alerts for the money transferred under Janani Suraksha and other government schemes, the police said.

During police interrogation, Ashok named CHC’s block programme officer Neeraj Awasthi and block accounts officer Gaurav Thapa, in whose collusion the funds were misappropriated, according to the police.

A sum of ₹45,000 was transferred in the name of the beneficiary under the government schemes, including Janani Suraksha Yojana and sterilisation scheme, in the name of Krishna Kumari in a span of 18 months. The shocking case came to the fore during a concurrent audit by the health department at the Fatehabad CHC in Agra district.