Acting on a city doctor’s complaint that a dealer of surgical equipment had supplied him stents, used on patients undergoing angioplasty, past their expiry date on May 14, the city police have registered a case of cheating and endangering lives (of patients) against four persons, including the dealer and his two sons.
However, no arrest has been made so far.
Dr. P. Saravanan of Saravana hospital at Narimedu lodged a complaint with the Central Crime Branch that the dealer – Ramasubbu of Tiruppalai, his sons, Amar Karthik and Sundareswaran, and their employee, Raja, had supplied to him stents in May.
“The dealer had concealed the expiry dates – between May and November 2014 – in the delivery challans. However, during routine auditing by hospital staff, the difference in the expiry dates in the challans and packing of stents came to light,” Dr. Saravanan said in his complaint.
Alleging that his two of his hospital technicians were bribed by the supplier, Dr. Saravanan said that Raja had taken away 30 stents, worth Rs. 33 lakh, from his hospital.
The doctor complained that the stents would jeopardise the lives of heart patients if they had been used. He alleged that the dealer would have supplied inferior quality stents to other hospitals too. Twenty days after the complaint was lodged, the CCB registered the case on June 5 on charges of endangering lives or personal safety, cheating, stealing and criminal conspiracy.
The Tallakulam police registered a case against Dr. Saravanan and his staff on Amar Karthik’s complaint that they threatened their family members last month after trespassing into their house.
