Deccan Chronicle: Hyderabad: Thursday, January 25, 2018.
The case
against Dr D. Seshagiri Rao, head of cardiology at Nizam’s Institute of
Medicine (NIMS) has been closed in 2017. The doctor was caught red-handed
accepting a bribe of Rs 1.6 lakh from a stent supplier who worked for former
Nizamabad Member of Parliament G. Atma Charan Reddy, in 2013 .
The ACB
recovered the bribe amount from his office and arrested him. A case was
registered against Dr Rao under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Subsequently,
he was suspended by NIMS.
The ACB
submitted a final report in 2015 and sought permission to prosecute the doctor.
The Health Medical and Family Welfare department, however, issued orders vide
memo No. 1860/VC.1/2013-3 to drop further action in the case. The ACB then
filed an application before a special court for closure of ‘First Information
Received’ (FIR) in 2016.
In September
2017, an RTI (right to information) was
filed by the Forum for Good Governance with the health medical and family
welfare department questioning why the case was closed despite concrete
evidence of the officer being caught in the act of committing a crime and
booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
This was the
response to the RTI: “Dr Rao has raised objection not to provide personal
information which will not come under the RTI.” Mr Padmanabha Reddy of the
Forum for Good Governance says the order of the government directing the ACB to
drop further action “sends wrong signals to government employees. An impression
is created that a trap case can be manipulated in the secretariat.”
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