A Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court recently exonerated four former employees of the Tata Memorial Hospital, who were being prosecuted on the grounds that they were misappropriating medicines by using fake sale memos.
While one of the employees was the officer-in-charge of the dispensary, the other accused were pharmacists in the dispensary. A complaint filed on April 29, 2009, had alleged that the accused had abused their positions and prepared false memos through which they claimed to issue medicines to the employees of the hospital. Allegedly, these memos were without prescription and through them, the employees had misappropriated medicines worth ₹1.42 lakh between 2006 and 2008.
The questions before the court were: whether the employees had criminally conspired to prepare false sale memos of medicines; whether they received an unjust supply of medicines which they then misappropriated; through such misappropriation whether they had gained an unlawful advantage in the eyes of the law; and would they be liable to be punished under the Indian Penal Code?
Judge P.K. Sharma said the accused had not been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt and hence would be absolved of liability. As per the prosecution, witnesses only managed to prove unjust issuance of medicines at best, which was also not firmly established and criminal misappropriation by the accused could not be proved. Hence, the court acquitted all the four accused and absolved them of all charges.
