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Himachal health dept scam: Punjab firm employee gets bail
The anticipatory bail pleas of now suspended director (health services) Dr Ajay Kumar Gupta and his wife were dismissed by the court after hearing arguments of the bureau
A court here on Friday granted bail to the Punjab firm employee arrested in connection with a bribery case involving the director of health services in Himachal Pradesh.
Special judge Arvind Malhotra granted bail to Prithvi Singh after he had been remanded in five-day police custody. He was released on conditional bail.
The anticipatory bail pleas of now suspended director (health services) Dr Ajay Kumar Gupta and his wife were dismissed by the court after hearing arguments of the bureau.
The state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau probing the Himachal Pradesh health department scam has found that employees of a Punjab-based firm colluded with Dr Ajay Kumar Gupta to secure orders for supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for corona warriors.
The scam surfaced on May 20 after an audio clip of a conversation between Dr Gupta and Prithvi Singh, a representative for a medical equipment supplier in Punjab, was widely shared on social media. In the 43-second audio clip, Dr Gupta is heard asking Prithvi, 46, for a bribe of ₹5 lakh to seal the deal.
After Gupta’s arrest, the vigilance department had sent Dr Gupta’s and Prithvi’s mobile phones for investigation to the Central Forensic Laboratory at Junga. Dr Ajay Gupta was arrested on May 28, which triggered state BJP Chief Rajeev Bindal to quit his post.
The forensic examination of the phones revealed that there were three more audio recordings between Prithvi, an agent of Bioaide Corporation, and Dr Gupta that were related to the supply of PPEs.
Vigilance sleuths found that Singh was seeking one more supply order of PPE kits from Dr Ajay Kumar Gupta before the issue of tender so that both could make gains but no supply order could be carried out as by then the state government decided that Covid-19 purchases will be made through tenders.
