A special Vigilance court here on Thursday ordered that the two former senior health officials, who had been convicted for corruption, be shifted to the jail from the Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) where they are being treated after they claimed health problems.
Former Directors of Health Services V.K. Rajan and K. Shylaja had been convicted for corruption in the procurement of Hepatitis-B vaccine for child immunisation in the 2002-03 period. The latter was the District Medical Officer in Thiruvananthapuram then. Soon after the sentence was delivered on Tuesday, the convicts were shifted to the Government Hospital at Fort, and later were referred to the MCH.
However, following an order by the special court, a doctor from the Sree Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology examined them and found that while Rajan suffered from a heart ailment, Shylaja did not have any ailments.
In police cell
On the basis of the report, Vigilance Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge A. Baharudeen ordered that Rajan be shifted to the police cell of the medical college hospital while Shylaja be lodged at the Women’s Jail at Attakulangara.
Besides being sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years, the duo were also slapped with fines of ₹52 lakh each. According to the Vigilance case, the convicts had inflated the demand for the vaccine and awarded the contract at a rate higher than the then market ratecausing a loss of ₹1.49 crore to exchequer.
