HC notice to Venugopal on ex-PRO's plea

The Delhi HC issues notice to the former director of AIIMS on a petition filed by the institute's ex-PRO for an enquiry against the doctor for withholding his personal belongings

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to Dr P Venugopal, former director of AIIMS, on a petition filed by the institute's ex-PRO for an independent enquiry against the doctor for allegedly withholding his personal belongings including passport and cheque books.

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Issuing notice to Venugopal, Justice Anil Kumar sought his reply by May nine on the petition filed by ex-PRO Bijay Kumar Dash, through his counsel Barun Sinha.

Dash also sought an enquiry against the hospital management headed by Venugopal for illegally seizing all his belongings in February 2007.

To another allegation of Dash for an incident happened earlier, the court also issued notice to Venugopal's predecessor Dr PK Dave and N Baijendra Kumar, deputy Director Administration, for allegedly taking away his passport, PAN card, ownership document of his flat and the Employees Health Scheme (EHS) card when he was on leave in October 2002.

Submitting a list of articles before the court, the petitioner said that his National Saving Certificates and LIC policies were also taken away from his residence and office in the institute premises in February last year when Venugopal was the director of the institute.

Filing its reply before the court, the counsel for AIIMS Mukul Gupta admitted seizing of Dash's articles in two separate incidents earlier.

Gupta said that the institute has no objection to set up an inquiry against its previous directors and other competent hospital staff for committing the offence.

The court now fixed May 9, as the date for further hearing of the matter.