M'luru: ESI hospital senior pharmacist caught red-handed accepting bribe

Mangaluru: Sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) apprehended a staff of ESI Hospital in Panambur accepting a bribe for releasing money to a patient.

The arrested has been identified as Vishnumurthi, who works as a senior pharmacist at the ESI Hospital in Panambur.

Prashant Kumar, who is a patient at the KMC hospital and an ESI beneficiary, had lodged a complaint with the ACB police about the demand for a bribe for sanctioning the medical bill. Kumar suffered from a kidney-related ailment and had to purchase medicines from the ESI dispensary required for dialysis.

If any medicine was unavailable at the ESI dispensary then that had to be procured from private pharmacies and the bill would be reimbursed by ESI. For this, the pharmacist had to approve the bill.

Vishnumurthi, it is alleged, had demanded Rs 2000 from Kumar for approving the bill. On Saturday, ACB police trapped Vishnumurthy while accepting the bribe.

Meanwhile, ACB police are interrogating the ESI staff.