The Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Dholpur unit arrested a senior medical officer and a private individual in Bharatpur district on Thursday for allegedly accepting a Rs 35,000 bribe to prepare a medico-legal case report at a government hospital in Nadbai.
According to ACB director general of police Govind Gupta, senior medical officer Shashikant Sharma allegedly demanded the money through Trilok Chand Sharma, also known as Chinu, who acted as his middleman. The arrests followed a complaint from a person who had registered an assault case at Nadbai police station after family members suffered injuries.
The complainant alleged that the money was demanded for preparing the MLC, a medical report used in cases involving suspected assault and other offences. The Dholpur ACB team verified the complaint before conducting the trap, the bureau said.
Trilok Chand Sharma was allegedly caught accepting the money on behalf of the doctor. The ACB said the bribe was recovered from his trouser pocket. Dr Shashikant Sharma was detained from his government residence after the alleged acceptance of the money.
The case places the role of government hospitals in medico-legal proceedings under scrutiny. MLCs can form part of the documentary record examined by investigating agencies and courts in criminal cases, making timely and proper medical documentation an important part of the justice process. The ACB’s account, however, concerns allegations, and the arrests do not by themselves establish guilt.
The trap operation was conducted under the supervision of Om Prakash Meena, deputy inspector general of the ACB’s Bharatpur Range, and led by Premchand Meena, deputy superintendent of police with the Dholpur ACB unit. Further proceedings will follow under the bureau’s anti-corruption investigation.
